BR  1022  .M48  1892 
Meyrick,  Frederick,  1827 

1906. 
The  church  in  Spain 


^be  IFiational  (rburcbe6> 

KDITED    KV 

P.  H.  DITCHFIEIJ),  MA.    F.R.Hist.S. 


/<^H  OF  Ff 

\  ^  SEP   30  1 


THE 

CHURCH    IN    SPAIN 


THE 


CHURCH    IN    SPAIN 


BY 


FREDERICK    MEYRICK,    M.A. 

RECTOR    OF    BLICKLING,    NORFOLK, 
AND    NON-RESIDENTIARY    CANON    OF    LINCOLN    CATHEDRAL. 


Milb  lltap, 


NEW    YORK: 

JAMES     POTT     &     CO. 

ASTOR     PLACE. 

1892. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Legendary  beginnings — The  legend  of  S.  lago — Its  two  forms  : 
(i)  that  he  preached  in  Spain  in  his  lifetime;  (2)  that  his 
body  was  transported  to  Spain  after  his  death,  and  dis- 
covered by  Bishop  Theodomir  in  the  ninth,  and  by  Cardi- 
nal Paya  y  Rico  in  the  nineteenth,  century — Adoption  of 
the  legend  by  Leo  IIL  and  Leo.  XIIL— Theory  of  Tille- 
mont  and  Gams — The  legend  of  the  Seven  .... 


CHAPTER  n. 

Roman  Spain  —  How  Christianity  entered  Spain  —  S.  Paul — 
Close  connexion  between  the  province  of  Spain  and  Imperial 
Rome — Likeness  in  origin  of  the  Churches  of  Spain  and 
England — Five  periods  of  Spanisli  ecclesiastical  history      .         iS 


CHAPTER  in. 

Roman  Spain — The  Prse-Diocletian  times — Civil  provinces  of 
the  Peninsula — Basilides  and  Martial — The  Valerian  perse- 
cution— Martyrdom  of  S.  Fructuosus — ^Justa  and  Rufina — 
Marcellus  and  Cassian — Emetherius  and  Chelidonius .         .        24 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Roman  Spain — The  Diocletian  persecution  in  Spain — Galerius 
and  Constantius,  the  Csesars— Dacian  Prseses  of  Spain — 
Thirty  Spanish  martyrs — S.  Eulalia  of  Merida — S.  Vincent         40 


vi  COXTENTS. 

CHAPTER  V. 


PAGE 


Roman  Spain — The  Council  of  Elvira — Its  purpose  and  its 
canons — Pictures  in  churches— Celibacy  of  the  clergy — 
Asceticism — Church  discipline 55 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Roman  Spain — Bishop  Hosius  of  Cordova— Tlis  favour  with 
Constantine — President  of  the  Council  of  Nicasa — Probable 
organiser  of  the  metropolitan  system  in  Spain — President 
of  the  Council  of  Sardica — His  fall  at  Sirmium — His  death         65 


CHAPTER  Yir. 

Roman  Spain— Spanish  Churchmen  of  the  fourth  century— Gre- 
gory of  Elvira — Florence  of  Merida — Potamius  of  Lisbon 
— Pacian  of  Barcelona — Paulinus  of  Nola — Vigilantius — 
Tuvencus — Prudentius — Damasus  of  Rome — Theodosius  I.  76 


CHAPTER  VHI. 

Roman  Spain — Priscillianism — Instantius  and  Salvian — Tdacius 
and  Ithacius — Synod  of  Zaragoza — Consecration  of  Priscil- 
lian — His  execution  by  Maximus — Protest  of  Ambrose  and 
Martin — Subsequent  history  of  Priscillianism — Orosius — 
Turribius — Council  of  Toledo — Council  of  Braga — Retro- 
spect of  the  Church  of  Roman  Spain — Its  origin,  doctrines, 
discipline,  organisation,  indenender.ce  ....         92 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Gothic  Spain — Invasion  of  the  Peninsula  by  the  Vandals,  Suevi, 
and  Alani,  A.D.  409 — Entry  of  the  Goths  in  414 — Its  con- 
quest by  Euric,  Gothic  King  of  Toulouse,  A.D.  466 — Code 
of  Laws  of  the  Visigoths — Arianism  of  the  Goths — Bishop 
Wulfila — Line  of  Arian  kings  to  Leovigild  from  Euric         .       113 

CHAPTER  X. 

Gothic  Spain — King  Leovigild — Insurrection,  defeat,  and  death 
of  Hermenigild  —  Conversion  of  the  Suevi,  A.D.  560 — 
Bishop  iMasona  of  Merida — Supreme  effort  of  Leovigild — 
His  failure  and  death 125 


CONTENTS.  vii 

CHAPTER  XL 

PAGE 

Gothic  Spain — King  Reccared  and  tiie  Third  Council  of  Toledo 
— Conversion  of  the  reahn  from  Arianism  to  Catholicity — 
The  Filioque  inserted  in  the  Creed  of  Constantinople— The 
insertion  condemned  ex  catJwdrd  by  Pope  Leo  III. ;  accepted 
by  his  successor,  A.D.  1014  ;  resisted  by  the  Oriental  Church 
—Results  of  Reccared's  Council 143 


CHAPTER  XH. 

Gothic  Spain— Growth    of  the  See  of  Toledo— King  Gunde- 

mar's  Decree,  by  which  it  attained  to  metropolitan  rank    .       161 


CHAPTER  XUL 

Gothic  Spain — Bishop  Isidore  and  the  Fourth  Council  of  Toledo 
— His  brothers,  Leander  and  Fulgentius — Persecution  of 
the  Jews — Isidore's  influence  and  works      ....       165 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

Gothic  Spain — The  later  Gothic  kings  in  their  relation  to  the 
'Church — Councils  of  ^Toledo — Bishop  lldefonso  and  S. 
Leocadia — Deposition  of  Wamba 1  So 


CHAPTER  XV. 

Gothic  Spain — Bishop  Julian  and  the  Primacy  of  Toledo — 
Toledo  a  rival  of  Rome — Bishop  Julian  and  Benedict  II. — 
The  last  Councils  of  Toledo 192 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

Gothic  Spain— The  last  years  of  the  Gothic  monarchy— Witiza 
— Roderic — Count  Julian — Tarik— Musa — Retrospect  of  the 
Church  of  Gothic  Spain — Its  relation  to  the  Crown  :  {a) 
under  the  Arian,  {b)  under  the  Catholic,  kings — Its  in- 
dependence of  the  Primate  of  Italy — Its  doctrines  and 
discipline 204 


viii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

PAGE 

Moorish  Spain — Spread  of  Mohammedanism  throughout  the 
world — Rapid  reduction  of  Spain  by  the  Saracens — Their 
internal  dissensions — The  Ommiad  Caliphate  at  Cordova — 
Origin  of  the  kingdoms  of  Leon,  Navarre,  Aragon — Ron- 
cesvalles — Catalonia — Mozarabs .         .         .  .         .219 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

Moorish  Spain — Tlie  Migetian  and  Adoptionist  heresies — 
Migetius — Elipandus  —  Bishop  Egila — Felix,  Bishop  of 
Urgel 230 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

Moorish  Spain — S.  James  of  Compostela — Discovery  of  his 
body  by  Bishop  Theodomir — Letter  of  Pope  Leo  III. — 
King  Ramiro  and  the  Champion  of  the  armies  of  Spain — 
The  Church  of  Compostela — Claudius  of  Turin  .         .         .       236 

CHAPTER  XX. 

Moorish  Spain — The  Cordovan  Caliphate — The  Mosque — The 

Bridge — The  Palaces  of  Azzahra  and  Azzahira — Almanzor        249 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

Moorish  Spain — The  Martyrs  of  Cordova — Abbot  Speraindeo 
and  his  disciples,  Eulogius  and  Alvar — Perfectus — John — 
Isaac — Flora  and  Maria — Aurelius  and  Sabigotho — Felix, 
Liliosa,  and  George — Columba  and  Pomnosa — Eulogius 
and  Leocritia       .........       259 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

Moorish  Spain — Bishop  Hostegesis  and  the  Abbot  Samson — 
Heresy  on  the  Divine  Omnipresence  and  the  Incarnation — 
Translation  of  the  bodies  of  Aurelius,  Sabigotho,  and 
George  from  Cordova  to  Paris 285 


CONTENTS.  ix 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

PAGE 

Moorisli  Spain — The  second  period  of  the  Moorish  domination 
— Alonzo  VI.  and  the  capture  of  Toledo — The  Cid — The 
Almoravides  and  the  Ahiiohades — Rise  and  independence 
of  Portugal — The  battle  of  Navas  de  Tolosa— The  bull  of 
the  Crusade 291 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

Moorish  Spain — The  new  Church  of  Leon  and  Castile  :  its  dis- 
tinction from  the  old  Mozarabic  or  Spanish  Church  :  its 
Papal  characteristics — Growth  of  the  See  of  Compostela — 
Bishop  Diego  Gelmirez — His  robbery  of  the  bodies  of  saints 
from  Portugal — His  political  intrigues — Insurrection  of  the 
people  of  Compostela  against  him  and  Queen  Urraca — His 
skill  in  enriching  his  See — His  resolve  to  raise  it  to  archi- 
episcopal  rank — His  success  by  bribery  at  Rome — Second 
insurrection  against  him  at  Compostela        .         .  .       297 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

INIoorish  Spain — The  INIozarabic  Liturgy — The  five  groups  ofearly 
liturgies — The  old  Spanish  or  Gothic  or  Mozarabic  Liturgy 
prevailed  in  Spain  till  A,D.  1085 — Abolislied  by  the  influ- 
ence of  Gregory  VII.  and  Alfonso  VI. — Ximenes'  edition  of  it       340 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

Moorish  Spain — Four  hundred  years  of  turmoil  and  licence — 
Growth  of  Portugal — Pedro  the  Cruel  of  Castile  and  his 
contemporaries,  Pedro  of  Portugal,  Pedro  of  Aragon,  and 
Charles  the  Bad  of  Navarre — Papal  interdicts     .         ,         .       352 


CHAPTER  XXVIL 

Moorish  Spain — The  Military  Orders  and  the  earlier  Inquisition 
— The  Orders  of  Calatrava,  S.  lago,  Alcantara — The  Inqui- 
sition of  1204  in  Provence,  France,  Italy,  and  Spain — Insti- 
tution of  the  later  Inquisition — Torquemada — Arbues — 
Deza — Ximenes 359 


CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER  XXVIII. 


PAGE 


Transitional    Spain — Archbishops  Cnrillo,   Mendoza,   Ximenes 

de  Cisneros 373 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

Modern  Spain — The  later  Inquisition  :  in  the  reign  of  Charles 
v.,  in  the  reign  of  Philip  II. — The  atitos-da-fe  of  Seville 
and  Valladolid — Archbishop  Carranza  —  Don  Carlos  — 
Number  of  the  victims  of  the  Inquisition  in  Spain      .         .       3S0 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

Modern  Spain — The  Jesuits — Loyola — Influence  of  the  Company 
in  Portugal  and  Spain — Xavier — Molina — Quarrel  between 
the  Jesuits  and  the  Dominicans — Sebastian  of  Portugal — 
Union  of  Spain  and  Portugal  under  Philip  II.,  III.,  IV. — 
Predominant  influence  of  the  Jesuits  in  the  vv^hole  of  the 
Peninsula  and  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  dependencies — 
Their  expulsion  from  Portugal  and  from  Spain,  and  their 
restoration 402 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 

Modern  Spain — The  Spanish  Mystics — Counter-Reformation 
in  the  Peninsula — S.  Teresa  de  Jesus — S.  Juan  of  the  Cross 
— Fray  Luis  of  Granada — Evanescent  effects  of  Mysticism  .       423 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 

Modern  Spain — The  Bourbons  in  Spain — Decline  of  the  power 
of  the  Inquisition  and  of  the  Jesuits — Growth  of  liberalism 
— Reaction  under  Fernando  VII. — Aboliiion  of  the  Inqui- 
sition— Suppression  of  the  monastic  orders — Alienation 
of  Church  lands  and  endowments — Strained  relations  of 
Churcii  and  State  under  Espartero — The  Concordat  of  1851 
— Present  state  of  the  Spanish  Ciiurch — Reappearance  of 
Protestantism  since  General  Prim's  Revolution  and  the 
Constitution  of  1868 ^^3- 


Index 


447 


TABLE   OF   SOVEREIGNS. 


A.D. 

Goths. 

Suevi. 

Aragon. 

Porhigal, 

409 

Hermeric. 

414 

Ataulphus. 

... 

... 

415 

Sigeric. 

... 

... 

... 

415 

Wallia. 

... 

... 

... 

420 

Theodoric  I. 

... 

... 

... 

438 

... 

Rekila. 

448 

... 

Rekiar. 

... 

451 

Thorismund. 

... 

... 

... 

453 

Theodoric  II. 

... 

... 

457 

Maldra. 

... 

460 

Fruraarius. 

464 

Remismund. 

466 

Euric. 

... 

483 

Alaric. 

... 

... 

5c6 

Gesaleic. 

511 

Am  alaric. 

531 

Theudis. 

548 

Theudigisel. 

... 

... 

549 

Agila. 

... 

... 

550 

Carriaric. 

... 

554 

Athanagjld. 

... 

559 

... 

Theodomir. 

... 

... 

567 

Leuva  I. 

... 

... 

569 

Mi'r. 

... 

t,JO 

Leovigild. 

... 

582 
583 

... 

Eboric. 

.'. 

Andeca  (the  king- 

... 

dom    merges    in 

that  of  the  Goths 

under  Leovigild). 

587 

Reccared  I. 

... 

601 

Leuva  II. 

... 

... 

... 

603 

Witteric. 

... 

... 

... 

610 

Gundemar. 

... 

... 

... 

6t2 

Sisebut. 

... 

... 

... 

621 

Reccared  II. 

... 

621 

Swintila. 

... 

631 

Sisenand. 

... 

... 

636 

Chintila. 

... 

640 

Tulga. 

... 

... 

642 

Kindaswinth. 

... 

... 

... 

649 

Recceswinth. 

672 

Wamba. 

... 

680 

Erwig. 

... 

687 

Egica. 

... 

... 

... 

701 

Witiza. 

... 

... 

709 

Roderic. 

... 

TABLE  OF  SOVEREIGNS. 


A.D. 

Got/is. 

Asturias. 

Aragon. 

Portugal. 

711 

[Theodoniir  in 
Murcia.] 

... 

718 

Pelayo. 

... 

... 

737 

... 

Fav]la. 

... 

_^ 

739 

Saracens. 

Alonzo  I. 

... 

755 

Abderrahman  I. 

Fruela  I. 

... 

768 

Orelio. 

774 

Siion. 

787 

Hischam. 

Maureojato. 

... 

788 

... 

Bernmdo  I. 

791 

... 

Alonzo  II. 

... 

796 

Hakem. 

... 

821 

Abderrahman  II. 

... 

842 

... 

Ramiro  I. 

... 

... 

850 

Ordono  I. 

... 

... 

852 

Mohammed  I. 

... 

... 

806 

Alonzo  III. 

... 

... 

886 

Mundhir. 

... 

... 

888 

Abdallah. 

Asturias  and  Leon. 

... 

... 

910 

... 

Garcia. 

... 

... 

912 

.\bderrahman  III. 

... 

... 

914 

... 

Ordofio  II. 

... 

923 

Fruela  II. 

... 

925 

Alonzo  IV. 

... 

930 

Ramiro  II. 

950 

Ordono  III. 

... 

955 

Sancho. 

... 

961 

Hakem  II. 

... 

... 

967 

Ramiro  III. 

... 

... 

976 

Hischam  II. 

... 

982 

Bermudo  II. 

... 

... 

999 

Alonzo  V. 

... 

... 

1012 

Sulevman. 

... 

... 

1015 

Ali. 

... 

... 

1017 

Abderrahman  IV. 

... 

1018 

Kassini. 

... 

... 

1023 

Abderrahman  V. 

... 

... 

1023 

Mohammed  II. 

1026 

Hiscliam   III.  (ab- 
dicated in  103 1 ). 

Bermudo  III. 

... 

1035 

Ramiro  I 

... 

1037 

Fernando  I. 

... 

1063 

{Altnoravzdes.) 

Sancho. 

... 

1065 

Alonzo  VI. 

... 

... 

1091 

Yussef  benTaxfin. 

... 

1094 

Pedro  I. 

... 

1 104 

... 

Alonzo  (hus- 
band     of 

... 

Urraca).                                   1 

TABLE  OF  SOVEREIGNS. 


A.D. 

Saracens. 

Asturias  and  Leon. 

Aragon. 

Portugal. 

(Alffioravides.) 

1 107 

Ali  ben  Yussef. 

... 

1 108 

Urraca  (wife  of 
Alonzo  of  Aragon). 

... 

III2 

... 

Alonzo  VII. 
(Emperor). 

... 

... 

II34 

Ramiro  II. 

... 

1 137 

Petronilla. 

II39 

... 

... 

Affonso  Henrique 

1 144 

Taxfin  ben  Ali. 
{Almohades.) 

... 

... 

... 

1 147 

Abdelmumen. 

... 

... 

... 

II57 

Fernando  II. 

... 

... 

1 160 

Alonzo  VIII. 
(of  Castile). 

... 

... 

1 1 63 

Yussef  ben  Yacub. 

... 

Alonzo  II. 

II78 

Yacub  ben  Yussef. 

... 

I185 

... 

Sancho  I. 

I188 

Alonzo  IX. 

II96 

... 

Pedro  II. 

II99 

Mohammed. 

... 

I2II 

Affonso  11. 

I213 

Abu  Yacub. 

Asturias,  Leon 
and  Castile. 

Jayme  I. 

1223 

Abulmelic. 

Sancho  11. 

1230 

( Granada. ) 

Fernando  III. 
(from  Castile). 

1238 

Mohammed  I. 

... 

1248 

Affonso  III. 

1252 

Alonzo  X. 

1273 

Mohammed  II. 

... 

1276 

... 

... 

Pedro  III. 

1279 

... 

Dionis. 

1284 

Sancho  IV. 

... 

I29I 

Alonzo  III. 

... 

1295 

Fernando  IV. 

Jayme  11. 

... 

1302 

Mohammed  III. 

... 

... 

... 

I312 

... 

Alonzo  XI. 

... 

I313 

Ismael. 

1325 

Mohammed  IV. 

Alonzo  IV. 

Affonso  IV. 

1333 

Yussef. 

Pedro  IV. 

... 

1350 

Pedro  the  Cruel. 

... 

... 

1354 

Mohammed  V. 

... 

... 

1357 

... 

... 

Pedro  I. 

1360 

Abu  Said. 

... 

1369 

... 

Enrique  II, 

... 

Fernando. 

1379 

... 

Juan  I. 

... 

... 

1383 

... 

Juan  I. 

Joao  I. 

1390 

Enrique  III. 

... 

I39I 

Yussef  II. 

... 

... 

1396 

Mohammed  VI. 

... 

... 

TABLE  OF  SOVEREIGNS. 


A.D. 

Saracens. 

Asturias,  Leo?i            A-,.^rr^^ 
and  Castile.        j     "^'""Son. 

Portugal. 

[Granada.) 

1406 

Juan  II. 

... 

1408 

Yussef  III. 

... 

1412 

... 

Fernando  I. 

I416 

... 

Alonzo  V. 

1423 

Mohammed  VU. 

... 

... 

1427 

Mohammed  VIII. 

... 

1432 

Yussef  IV. 

... 

Duarte. 

1438 

... 

Affonso  V. 

1445 

Mohammed  IX. 

... 

... 

1454 

Mohammed  X. 

Enrique  IV. 

... 

1458 

... 

... 

Juan' II. 

1463 

Abul  Hassan. 

1474 

Isabel. 

... 

1479 

Asturias,  Leon, 
Castile,  Aragon, 

Fernando  II. 
of  Aragon, 

V.  of  Castile 

Granada,  i.e.  Spain. ! 

1483 

Abu  Abdallah. 
[Boabdil). 

Joao  II. 

1484 

Abdallah  al  Zagal 
(capture  of  Gra- 
nada in  1491). 

... 
[House  of  Austria.) 

1504 

... 

Juana,  Philip, 

... 

1516 

... 

Carlos  I.  (CharlesV.) 

1521 

Joao'lII. 

1556 

... 

Philip  II. 

Sebastian. 

1578 

... 

Henrique. 

1580 

... 

Phihp  I.  (II). 

1598 

Philip  III. 

Philip  II.  (III.) 

1621 

... 

Phihp  IV. 

Phihp  III.  (IV.) 

1640 

... 

Joao  IV. 
(of  Braganza). 

1665 

... 

Carlos  II. 

1676 

... 

Affonso  VI. 

1683 

... 

[House  of  Bourbon.) 

Pedro  II. 

1700 

... 

Philip  V. 

1707 

... 

Joao  V. 

1746 

... 

Fernando  VI. 

1750 

... 

Jose. 

1759 

... 

Carlos  III. 

1776 

... 

Maria  I. 

1779 

Joao  W. 

1814 

... 

Fernando  VII. 

1828 

... 

Miguel. 

1833 

... 

Isabel  II. 

Maria  II. 

1870 

... 

Amadeus. 

187s 

... 

Alonzo  XII. 

i8?6 

... 

AlonzoXIll. 

1889 

Carlos. 

HISTORY  OF  THE   CHURCH 
IN   SPAIN. 

CHAPTER  I. 

THE  LEGENDS  OF  S.  I  AGO  AND  OF  THE  SEVEN. 

The  history  of  the  Spanish  Church,  like  many  other 
histories,  begins  with  legend.  The  chief  legend  is 
that  of  S.  I  ago,  the  story  of  whose  coming  to  Spain 
appears  in  three  different  forms.  These  are  :  i.  The 
legend  of  S.  James'  preaching  in  Spain  during  his 
lifetime.  2.  The  legend  of  the  transportation  of  his 
body  to  Spain  immediately  after  his  martyrdom.  3. 
The  theory  of  the  translation  of  his  bones  to  Spain  in 
the  seventh  or  eighth  century. 

I.  No  whisper  of  S.  James'  preaching  in  Spain  is 
even  alleged  to  be  heard  before  the  seventh  century. 
A  statement  to  that  effect  appeared  in  a  treatise  ^ 
assigned  to  Isidore,  Bishop  of  Seville,  a.d.  600-636, 
which  says  that  James  was  fourth  in  order  of  the 
Apostles,  that  he  wrote  to  the  tribes  of  the  dispersion 
among  the  Gentiles,  that  he  preached  the  Gospel  to 
the  nations  of  Spain   and   the  West,  that  he  poured 

1  De  Oriu  et  Obilu  ralium. 


2  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

the  light  of  his  preaching  into  the  Western  world, 
that  he  was  slain  with  the  sword  by  Herod  the  Te- 
trarch,  and  that  he  was  buried  in  Marmarica.-^  The 
treatise,  as  it  stands,  is  not  Isidore's.  It  is  impos- 
sible that  Isidore,  the  most  learned  Spanish  divine  of 
the  seventh  century,  could  have  confounded  James 
the  son  of  Zebedee  with  James  the  brother  of  the 
Lord,  and  Herod  the  Tetrarch  with  Herod  Agrippa 
I.,  or  could  have  supposed  James  to  have  been  buried 
in  the  north  of  Africa.  In  his  genuine  works  he 
describes  James  without  these  illiterate  blunders  ^ 
{Eiyniol  vii.  9).  The  passage  bears  on  its  face  proof 
that  the  ignorance  of  the  unknown  author  was  such 
as  to  make  him  altogether  unworthy  of  credit;  never- 
theless, with  him,  whoever  he  was,  that  wrote  the 
treatise  or  interpolated  the  passage  into  it,  originated 
the  S.  lago  legend,  which  became  a  firm  article  of 
faith    to   every   Spaniard,   and    was   adopted   into   the 

^  Marmaiica  is  a  district  in  the  north  of  Africa  near  Tripoli.  The 
word  being  misunderstood,  led  to  accounts  of  marble  vaults  under  which 
the  Apostle's  body  was  laid  at  Compostela.  Morales  takes  Marmarica 
for  Marmorea  Area,  and  appeals  to  this  passage  of  the  Pseudo-Isidore 
to  prove  that  the  chest  or  coffin  in  which  the  Apostle  was  buried  was 
of  marble,  "  Una  grande  area  o  sepulcro  de  marmol,  del  qual  tambien 
se  halle  mencion  in  San  Isidore  en  el  pequeno  libro  que  escrivio  de  la 
vida  y  muerte  de  algunos  santos  del  viejo  y  nuevo  testamento  ;  y  este 
sepulcro  o  area  de  marmol  es  muy  celebrada  despues  in  todos  los  ptivi- 
legios  mas  antiguos  que  aquella  santa  iglesia  del  Apostel  tiene"  {La 
Coronica  General  de  Esfafia,  Lib.  ix.  cap.  vii.,  Alcala,  1574).  Florez 
says,  "  En  sepulcro  cubieito  de  unos  arcos  de  marmol  "  {Espafia  Sag' 
rada,  vol.  xix.  p.  64).  Alonzo  III.,  "In  archis  marmoricis"  (ibid.,  p. 
348).  Alonzo  VI.,  "  Marmoreis  lapidibus  contextum"  (ibid.,  p.  63). 
The  Ilistoi-ia  Co7npostcIlana,  "  Marmoream  tumbam  "  (Lib.  i.  cap.  ii.). 

^  Such  a  mistake  might  easily  have  been  made  at  a  later  date,  and 
by  a  different  person.  The  authors  of  the  Ilistoria  Compostellana  of 
the  twelfih  century  do  not  seem  to  have  realised  that  there  were  two 
S.  James.  S.  James  the  son  of  Zebedee  is  called  by  sXx^vciConsanguineus 
Domini  (Lib.  ii.  2). 


THE  LEGENDS  OF  S.  I A  GO,  &-c.  3 

Roman  Breviary.  When  criticism  awoke,  Cardinal 
Baronius,  finding  a  contradiction  between  the  Spanish 
and  Roman  traditions,  induced  Pope  Clement  VIII. 
to  alter  the  statement  in  the  Breviary  that  James 
''  travelled  through  Spain,  and  there  preached  the 
Gospel"  (ed.  1568),  into  the  softer  declaration  that 
''  it  is  the  tradition  of  the  churches  of  that  province 
that  he  went  to  Spain,  and  there  made  some  converts 
to  the  Faith  "  (ed.  1603)  ;  or  that  "  it  is  said  to  be  a 
general  belief  among  Spaniards  that  he  went  to  Spain, 
and  there  made  some  converts  to  the  Faith "  (ed. 
1608).  But  this  hesitancy  touched  the  pride  of  Spain, 
and  on  the  protest  of  the  Spanish  Church  and  King, 
the  original  statement  was  restored,^  with  the  addi- 
tion of  a  clause  saving  the  claims  of  S.  Peter,  which 
the  Roman  traditions  demanded.  Thus  it  runs  at 
present,  '*  Having  gone  to  Spain,  he  there  made  some 
converts  to  Christ,  of  whom  seven  were  ordained 
bishops  by  Peter,  and  were  the  first  to  be  sent  to 
Spain  "  (ed.  1625).^  Dr.  Dollinger  does  not  scruple 
to  say,  ''  That  the  Apostle  James  the  Great  came  to 
Spain  to  preach  the  Faith,  contradicts  equally  the 
Bible  and  history  ;  but  since  the  tenth  century  this 
has  been  in  Spain  an  unassailable  fact ;  he  is  the 
patron  saint  of  the  land  to  this  day  ;  every  Spaniard 
maintains  it  in   the  face  of  the  world.      S.  lago,  the 

1  "  Commoviose,  dice  Jacobo  Spondano,  toda  la  Espana  contra 
Baronio.  ...  El  P.  Fr.  Miguel  de  Santa  Maria,  Agustiniano,  y  el  P. 
Mamachi  Dominicano  escribieron  que  si  fue  restituida  la  antigua 
clausula,  en  que  se  refiere  absolutamente  la  tradicion,  fue  por  la  solici- 
tud  y  suplicas  de  los  Espaiioles,  singularmente  del  Rey  Phelipe  III." — 
Flo7'ez,  XXX.  57,  58. 

^  Florez  calls  this  "la  sentencia  dada  juridicamente  por  el  Pontefice 
Urbane  VIII.  en  vista  del  parecer  de  toda  la  congregacion." — Ibid. 

B 


4  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

Apostle  of  fishermen,  has  become  a  judge  and  leader 
of  battle ;  in  thirty-eight  fights  he  was  seen  riding 
in  front  on  a  white  charger,  and  driving  the  enemy 
before  him  in  wild  flight."  ^ 

2.  The  legend  of  the  transportation  of  the  body  of 
S.  James  to  Spain  is  not  heard  of  till  the  beginning 
of  the  ninth  century,  when  Theodomir  was  Bishop  of 
Iria  Flavia,  Alfonso  the  Chaste,  King  of  the  Asturias, 
and  Leo  III.,  Pope.  Our  first  authority  on  the  sub- 
ject is  a  letter  attributed  to  Pope  Leo  IIL,  and  com- 
monly regarded  as  genuine.^  This  letter  tells  us  that 
after  S.  James'  martyrdom  by  Herod,  some  of  his 
disciples  took  his  body  to  Joppa,  placed  it  on  a  boat, 
and  sailed  to  Iria  Flavia,^  in  the  north-west  of  Spain. 
Here  they  landed  and  carried  their  treasure  some 
miles  inland^  to  Liberum  Donum,  where  they  threw 
down  an  idol's   temple,^  built  a  crypt,  and   buried  the 

^  Lecture  at  the  Royal  Academy  of  Science  at  Munich,  July  25,  1884. 

2  Masdeu  would  deny  the  authenticity  of  Leo's  letter.  **La 
carta  que  corre  de  un  Pontifice  Leon,  que  unos  dicen  ser  el  tercero  y 
otros  el  quarto  ;  aunque  se  diese  por  legitima,  no  consta  de  que 
Papa  es,  ni  de  que  siglo  "  {Historia  Criiica,  vol.  xiii.  p.  322).  It  is 
certainly  singular  that  the  Historia  Compostellana  makes  so  little  use 
of  the  statements  of  Pope  Leo's  letter  and  does  not  mention  its  exist- 
ence.    Is  it  an  invention  of  the  eleventh  century,  that  age  of  forgeries? 

3  Iria  is  a  word  meaning  in  the  Basque  tongue  "  city,"  When  its 
signification  was  forgotten  the  name  was  changed  to  Bisria  or  Bisrivus, 
because  situated  on  the  two  streams  the  Sar  and  the  UUia.  After- 
wards it  bore  the  name  of  El  Padron. 

^  Eight,  ten,  twelve,  or  sixteen  miles,  according  to  different  autho- 
rities. 

°  The  earlier  legend  having  metaphorically  described  the  overthrow 
of  the  idol  as  the  "destruction  of  the  dragon's  blasting  breath,"  the 
later  legends  declare  that  they  found  and  slew  "a  monstrous  dragon 
which  had  depopulated  the  neighbouring  villages  with  the  horrid  blast 
of  his  brealh,  had  killed  and  swallowed  every  living  creature,  and  had 
crushed  all  things  else  "  (See  Fita,  Recuerdos  de  tin  Viaja  a  Santiago 
de  Galicia,  Madrid.  1880). 


THE  LEGENDS  OF  S.  I  AGO,  &-c.  5 

body.  Two  of  the  disciples  were  Athanasius  and 
Theodore,  who  remained  to  guard  the  sepulchre,  and 
were  buried  by  the  side  of  their  master.  The  rest  of 
the  legend  may  be  given  in  the  words  of  the  ApostoHc 
Letter  of  Leo  XIIL,  issued  November  I,  1884. 

''  In  course  of  time,  the  barbarians  first  and  the 
Arabs  afterwards,  under  the  command  of  Muza,  in- 
vaded Spain,  and  especially  devastated  in  their  frequent 
incursions  the  parts  lying  near  the  spot,-^  so  that  the 
sacred  sepulchre  was  buried  beneath  the  ruins  of  the 
chapel,  and  remained  unknown  for  many  years. 

"  But  time  had  not  effaced  from  the  memory  of 
the  Spaniards  the  remembrance  of  the  sacred  relics. 
A  constant  tradition  relates  that  at  the  beginning  of 
the  ninth  century,  in  the  reign  of  Alfonso  the  Chaste, 
and  in  the  bishopric  of  Theodomir  of  Iria  Flavia, 
there  appeared  a  most  brilliant  star,  which  seemed  as 
if  nailed  in  the  sky  above  the  crypt  which  guarded 
the  relics  of  S.  James  and  his  disciples,  pointing  with 
its  flashing  rays  to  the  spot  in  which  those  sacred 
remains  were  buried.^     Bishop  Theodomir,  rejoiced  at 

^  Galicia  was  devastated  by  the  Arabs  less  than  any  other  part  of 
Spain.  In  less  than  fifty  years  after  Muza's  invasion  it  became  an 
integral  part  of  the  Christian  kingdom  of  the  Asturias,  and  it  never 
was  permanently  occupied  by  the  Arabs.  How  then  could  the  place  of 
the  Apostle's  grave  have  been  forgotten  ? 

2  The  genuine  legend  tells  of  lights  seen  flickering  in  all  parts  of  the 
wood,  first  by  shepherds,  then  by  the  Bishop.  These  multitudinous 
lights  on  the  ground  are  converted  by  Pope  Leo  XIII.  into  a  flashing 
star  nailed  in  the  sky.  Even  Gams  speaks  of  them  as  "glanzende  und 
stWi  hewegende  Lichter  in  dem  dichten  Gebiische  ;  "  and  he  adds,  "  Aber 
die  '  luminaria '  waren,  nach  Florez,  keine  Sterne  "  {Kirchengeschichte 
von  Spatiien^  Bk.  x.).  The  Historia  Conipostellana  describes  them  as 
"luminaria  in  nemore  ardentia "  (i.  2.).  Florez  says,  "Los  docu- 
mentos  mas  antiguos  que  hablan  de  la  invencion  no  mencionan 
estrella  sino  luces  "  i^Esp.  Sagr.,  xix.  70).  The  Pope  has  changed  the 
character  of  the  lights  by  his  Pontifical  authority. 


6  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

such  a  portent,  ordered  that  fervent  prayer  should  be 
made  to  God  its  author,  and  having  then  uncovered 
and  removed  the  ruins  of  the  chapel,  and  continuing 
his  investigations,  he  at  length  arrived  at  the  place 
where,  as  in  a  family  vault,  were  lying  in  distinct 
niches  the  bodies  of  the  three  saints. ■••  And  then, 
in  order  that  the  spot  sanctified  by  religion  might  be 
the  better  guarded  by  man,  he  surrounded  it  by  a 
wall,  and  at  the  same  time  secured  the  sacred  treasure 
with  solid  subterranean  constructions. 

*'  The  news  reached  the  ears  of  King  Alfonso,  and 
he  hastened  to  go  and  venerate  the  sacred  sepulchre 
of  the  Apostle,  and  ordered  the  ancient  chapel  to  be 
rebuilt  in  a  new  style,  and  gave  the  land  for  a  circuit 
of  three  miles  for  the  perpetual  preservation  of  the 
temple ;  while,  as  a  memorial  of  the  apparition  of  the 
brilliant  star,  the  town  nearest  the  crypt  took  the 
more  fitting  and  more  auspicious  name  of  Compostela.^ 

"  Numerous  miracles,  as  well  as  that  celestial  sign, 
gave  fame  to  the  tomb  of  the  Apostle,  so  that  not 
only    from   the  neighbouring  peoples,   but   also   from 

^  The  earlier  legends  speak  only  of  S.  James'  body,  not  the  bodies 
of  his  comrades,  being  found.  See  Florez,  £sp.  Sagr.,  xix.  64.  The 
Historia  Conipostcllana  says,  "  Quandam  domunculam,  marmoream 
tumbam  intra  se  continentem,  inter  sylvas  et  frutices  invenit "  (i.  2). 

-  The  derivation  of  Compostela  is  uncertain.  The  most  probable 
explanation  of  the  word  is  that  it  is  a  corruption  of  Giacomo  Apostolo 
through  the  provincialism  Gia-Com  postol,  **the  Apostle  James" 
(Gams,  Kirchengcschichte,  x.  9).  Its  previous  name  was  Liberum 
Donum,  a  Latinised  form  of  the  Celtic  word  Libredon,  "a  hill  fort." 
Other  derivations  are  Composihim  telus  {tehcm  or  rfKosl),  Co?npos  stella 
(Minuano,  Diccionario  gcogmfico  estadistico  de  Espana  y  Portugal 
Madrid,  1827).  It  probably  has  no  more  to  do  with  a  plain  and  a 
star  than  Bridgewater  (Burgh  Walter)  has  to  do  with  a  bridge  and  a 
stream.  See  article  by  Rev.  W.  Webster  in  the  Foreign  Church 
Chronicle^  viii.  200. 


THE  LEGENDS  OF  S.  I  AGO,  &-c.  7 

the  most  distant  places,  multitudes  hastened  to  pray 
at  those  sacred  remains.  Whereupon  King  Alfonso 
III.,  following  the  example  of  his  predecessor,  under- 
took the  creation  of  a  larger  church,  which  left  un- 
touched the  ancient  sepulchre,  and  as  soon  as  it  was 
finished,  adorned  it  with  all  royal  magnificence. 

"  At  the  end  of  the  tenth  century  the  savage  horde 
of  the  Arabs  again  invaded  Spain,^  destroyed  nume- 
rous cities,  and,  after  a  hideous  slaughter  of  the 
inhabitants,  carried  everywhere  extermination  by 
fire  and  sword.  The  Emir  Almanzor,  of  unhappy 
memory,  who  knew  how  great  was  the  worship  at 
the  tomb  of  S.  James,  conceived  the  idea  of  putting 
an  end  to  it,^  thinking  that  if  he  did  that,  the 
strongest  bulwark  of  Spain,  that  on  which  Spain 
reposed  all  her  hopes,  would  thus  fall  to  the  ground. 
He  commanded,  therefore,  the  chiefs  of  his  hordes 
to  march  at  once  upon  Compostela,  to  attack  the  city, 
and  to  consign  to  the  flames  the  church  and  every- 
thing that  belonged  to  it ;  but  God  checked  the 
devouring  conflagration  at  the  very  threshold  of 
the  presbytery,  and  struck  Almanzor  and  his  troops 
with  bitter  disasters,  which  compelled  them  to  retreat 
from  Compostela,  and  almost  all,  including  Almanzor, 
perished  by  unexpected  death.^ 

^  Pope  Leo  probably  means  not  Spain,  but  Galicia.  Almanzor 
came  from  Cordova,  where  the  Arabs  had  been  settled  for  nearly  300 
years. 

^  It  was  not  till  after  he  had  sacked  the  church  that  Almanzor 
learnt  that  it  was  the  reputed  burial-place  of  S.  James.  He  had  made 
some  fifty  similar  raids  against  the  Christians  before  he  turned  his 
steps  to  Compostela. 

3  This  statement  is  abridged  by  Pope  Leo  from  the  Historia  Cova- 
posiellana,  which  gives  greater  details.  "The  Blessed  James,  rot 
wishing  them  to  escape  with  impunity  from   the  church  which  they 


8  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

"  The  scattered  ashes  remained  round  the  sepulchre, 
a  memorial  of  the  ferocity  of  the  enemy,  and  a  testi- 
mony of  Divine  protection ;  and  when  Spain  was 
liberated  from  those  ills,  Diego  Pelaez,  Bishop  of 
Compostela,  built  a  larger  temple  on  the  ruins  of 
the  ancient  one,  and  this,  too,  was  enlarged  and 
beautified  by  his  succesor,  Diego  Gelmirez,  and  re- 
ceived the  titles  and   honours  of  a  cathedral.-^      But 

had  so  proudly  trampled  on,  attacked  them  so  violently  with  dysentery 
that  very  many  died,  and  but  few  returned  home.  And  when  their 
leader,  Almanzor,  thought  over  the  vengeance  that  had  fallen  on  them, 
he  is  said  to  have  asked  his  guides  who  it  was  whose  palace  had  been 
almost  destroyed  by  their  raid,  and  when  he  heard  that  James,  the 
disciple  of  the  son  of  Mary  the  Vh-gin  (whom  they  too  call  Mary), 
was  undoubtedly  buried  there,  repenting  of  his  audacity,  he  resolutely 
took  to  flight,  and  in  his  flight,  struck  with  a  sudden  sickness,  died  at 
Metina  Celmse,  where  he  was  buried,  and,  unhappy  man  !  commended 
his  soul  into  Mahomet's  bosom  "  (i.  2).  Almanzor,  however,  lived  at 
least  five  years  after  the  sack  of  Compos'.ela  ;  Florez  thinks  thirteen 
years  {£sj>.  Sagr.,  xix.  7). 

^  The  Pope  is  hopelessly  wrong  here  in  his  history.  King  Bermudo 
II.  at  once  restored  the  church  after  its  destruction  by  Almanzor,  and 
it  was  consecrated  afresh  by  Bishop  Pedro  I.  in  the  year  999,  that  is, 
three  years  after  its  ruin.  Florez  writes,  "  Retirado  de  Santiago  el 
enemigo  (Almanzor),  vino  el  Rey,  movido  de  pietad,  a  reconocer  las 
disgracias ;  y  hallando  muy  arruinada  la  Iglesia  del  Apostolo,  se  unio 
con  el  Obispo  Don  Pedro  para  restaurarla,  y  con  la  ayuda  de  Dios  lo 
consigueron.  El  Silense"  (the  monk  of  Silo,  who  wrote  a  chronicle, 
A.D.  1 100)  "dice  que  el  Rey  Don  Bermudo  empezo  a  restaurar  el  templo 
del  Apostolo  in  vielius.  Consta  pues  que  Almanzor  se  retiro  de  las 
hostilidades  de  Santiago  antes  del  999  en  que  murir  L'on  Bermudo. 
El  mismo  Obispo  Don  Pedro  consagr6  la  Iglesia "  {^Esp.  Sagr,,  xix. 
178).  The  Historia  Compostellana  says,  "Rex  (Veremundus)  superni 
amoris  stimulo  excitatus  in  hanc  urbem  curiosa  intentione  venit  et  hujus 
Apostoli  Ecclesiam,  quam  dirutam  invenit,  cum  eodem  Episcopo 
Domino  Petro,  Deo  adjuvante,  restauravit.  Post  restaurationem  con- 
secrata  equidem  Ecclesia  Petrus  idem  Episcopus  obdormivit  in  Domino" 
(i.  2).  Diego  Gelmirez  did  rebuild  a  part  of  it,  which  had  been  burnt 
down  by  the  people  of  Compostela,  who  had  set  it  on  fire  hoping  to  burn 
him  and  Queen  Urraca  in  it,  A.D.  11 17  (i.  113).  Pope  Leo  is  equally 
wrong  in  supposing  that  the  church  of  S.  lago  became  a  cathedral  first 
in  the  time  of  Gelmirez.  He  raised  the  See,  of  which  S.  lago  was 
already  the  cathedral,  to  archiepiscopal  dignity. 


THE  LEGENDS  OF  S.  I  AGO,  &^c.  9 

the  chief  care  of  that  prelate  was  to  establish  the 
authenticity  of  the  rehcs  which  had  been  handed 
down  to  him,  and  to  make  the  sepulchre  inaccessible 
by  building  a  wall  round  it.  On  that  occasion,  Bishop 
Gelmirez  sent  a  portion  of  the  sacred  relics,  accom- 
panied with  a  letter,  to  S.  Atton,  Bishop  of  Pistoja ; 
a  portion  taken  from  the  head,  as  has  been  proved  by 
recent  investigation,  called  the  apofisis  mastoidea^  and 
which  still  bears  traces  of  blood,  since  it  was  wounded 
by  the  sword  on  separating  the  head  from  the  body. 
And  that  venerable  relic,  celebrated  by  the  miracles 
it  has  wrought,  and  by  the  traditional  worship  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Pistoja,  is  still  an  object  of  especial 
veneration  in  that  church. 

"Meanwhile  the  fame  of  the  Spanish  sanctuary 
had  spread  abroad  everywhere,  and  innumerable 
multitudes  of  pilgrims  flocked  to  it  from  all  parts 
of  the  world;  such  being  the  affluence  as  to  be 
justly  compared  with  that  attracted  to  the  holy  places 
of  Palestine  and  the  tombs  of  the  Apostles  Peter  and 
Paul.  On  which  account  the  Roman  Pontiffs,  our 
predecessors,  reserved  for  the  Holy  See  the  dispensa- 
tion of  the  vow  of  pilgrimage  to  Compostela. 

"  But  the  sixteenth  century  had  not  run  its  course 
when  there  arose  a  terrible  and  frightful  tempest, 
which,  although  felt  throughout  Spain,  menaced  more 
seriously  the  sacred  tomb  of  the  Apostle.  War  having 
been  declared  between  the  Spanish  and  English,  these 
last,  who  had  abandoned  the  Catholic  faith  for  heresy, 
formed  the  project  of  sacking  and  destroying  the 
Catholic  churches,  profaning  and  demolishing  every- 
thing that  belonged  to  their  worship. 


lo  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

''  They  disembarked  an  army  in  the  province  of 
Galicia,  tore  down  the  churches,  delivered  to  the 
flames,  v^^ith  heretical  fury,  the  images  and  relics 
of  the  saints,  the  most  sacred  objects,  and  then 
directed  their  march  on  Compostela  in  order  to  put 
an  end  to  what  they  called  a  pernicious  superstition.-^ 

''The  pious  Archbishop,  Juan  de  San  Clemente, 
was  then  at  the  head  of  the  Church  of  Compostela ; 
he  consulted  with  the  Canons  on  the  means  of  placing 
in  security  the  relics  of  the  saints,  himself  under- 
taking the  charge  of  those  of  S.  James.  But  as 
the  enemy  was  already  at  the  gates  of  the  city,  he 
buried  opere  tumultuario  and  secretly  the  three  bodies, 
taking,  however,  the  precaution  to  construct  the  new 
tomb  with  the  materials  of  the  old  one,  which  had 
been  built  according  to  the  Roman  methods,  in  order 
that  some  proof  of  the  authenticity  of  the  relics  might 
remain  for  posterity. 

"When  peace  was  made  and  the  perils  of  war 
had  ceased,  the  inhabitants  of  Compostela  and  the 
pilgrims  who  flocked  to  that  spot  were  persuaded 
that  the  sacred  relics  were  still  in  the  same  place 
in  which  they  had  been  deposited  from  the  first,  an 
opinion  believed  from  that  time,^  so  that  in  our  day 
the  faithful   believed   that  the   holy  relics  were   pre- 

^  It  would  be  interesting  if  Pope  Leo  had  stated  to  what  event  he  refers. 
There  were  raids  made  by  English  sailors  before  and  after  the  Great 
Armada  on  the  west  coast  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  and  Compostela  may 
or  may  not  have  been  burnt  in  one  of  them. 

"^  As  the  raid  of  the  British  tars  could  not  have  lasted  above  a  day  or 
two,  probably  not  more  than  a  few  hours  (if  it  took  place  at  all),  it  is 
not  clear  how  the  memory  of  the  place  where  the  Archbishop  had  laid 
the  relics  perished.  Why  did  not  he  dig  them  up  again  when  the 
enemy  was  gone,  or  at  least  when  peace  was  made  with  England  a  few 
years  afterwards,  in  1604? 


THE  LEGENDS  OF  S.  lAGO,  &^c.  ii 

served  in  the  apse  of  the  principal  chapel,  and  went 
there  to  venerate  them,  virhile  the  clergy  of  the  cathe- 
dral sang  in  it  an  antiphon  on  Sunday. 

'^  Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  when  our  vener- 
able brother,  the  Cardinal  S.  I.  R.  Pay  a  y  Rico,  the 
present  Archbishop  of  Compostela,  undertook  some 
years  since  the  restoration  of  the  cathedral,  and  put 
into  execution  a  long  intended  design,  viz.,  to  search 
for  the  spot  in  which  were  the  relics  of  S.  James 
and  his  disciples,  Athanasius  and  Theodore.  For  this 
important  enterprise  he  selected  men  of  high  eccle- 
siastical dignity  and  of  perfect  competence,  to  whom 
he  entrusted  the  direction  of  the  work.  But  the 
result  was  a  disappointment  to  every  one,  for  the 
whole  of  the  sepulchre  and  the  crypts  which  are 
under  and  near  the  high  altar  were  explored  without 
finding  anything ;  until  at  last,  on  the  spot  on  which 
the  clergy  and  the  people  were  accustomed  to  pray 
with  greatest  fervour, — that  is  to  say,  in  the  centre 
of  the  apse,  behind  the  high  altar  and  before  another 
altar, — the  workmen  found  some  stone  slabs,  and, 
after  digging  down  two  cubits,  discovered  a  tomb 
with  a  cover  adorned  with  a  cross,  and  remarked  that 
the  tomb  had  been  formed  of  stones  and  bricks  taken 
from  the  crypt  and  from  ancient  sepulchres. 

"  Having  lifted  the  cover  in  the  presence  of  wit- 
nesses, they  found  three  male  skeletons."  ^ 

1  What  they  found  is  more  exactly  described  by  Padre  Fita,  SJ., 
and  Senor  Fernandez  Guerra,  who  were  appointed  official  investigators. 
It  was  a  stone  niche  or  chest  formed  of  rough  slabs,  and  measuring 
3i  feet  in  length  (half  the  length  of  a  coffin),  i  foot  I  inch  in  breadth, 
and  I  foot  in  depth,  containing  bones  and  earth  mixed  together  and  in 
disorder,  so  broken  that  there  was  not  one  entire  bone  in  it.  **  En 
ella  han  hallado  huesos  humanos,  colocados  sin  orden  y  mezclados  con 


12  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

These  skeletons,  or  rather  this  collection  of  bones, 
the  Pope  has  pronounced  to  be  S.  James,  Athanasius, 
and  Theodore,  *^  confirming  by  a  solemn  document  of 
apostolic  authority  the  sentence  on  the  identity  of 
the  sacred  bodies  of  the  Apostle  and  his  disciples," 
adding  an  order  ''  that  the  sentence  should  bear  force 
and  validity  for  ever."  He  has  also  granted  a  plenary 
indulgence  and  remission  of  all  sins,  applicable  both 
to  the  living  and  the  dead,  in  honour  of  "  this  new 
treasure  with  which  God  has  deigned  to  enrich  His 
Church  ;"  and  he  has  threatened  "with  the  indigna- 
tion of  God  and  of  His  blessed  Apostles  Peter  and 
Paul  any  who  should  dare  to  be  guilty  of  the  attempt 
to  resist  or  contradict  by  an  act  of  rash  audacity 
these  pages,  invested  with  our  approbation,  ratifica- 
tion, reserve,  concession,  and  will."  The  date  of  these 
Apostolic  Letters  is  November  i,  1884,  and  the  Pope 
who  has  issued  them  is  Pope  Leo  XIII. 

Dr.  Dollinger  writes,  "  That  the  body  of  S.  James 
was  landed  from  Palestine  on  the  coast  of  Galicia, 
and  is  there  preserved,  after  having  circumnavigated 
Spain,  is  a  somewhat  later  invented  fable  [than  the 
legend  of  the  Apostle's  preaching  in  Spain  in  person], 
but  Compostela  thereby  became  for  many  centuries 
the  most  frequented  pilgrimage  place  of  the  West."  ^ 

3.  The  third  form  of  the  Spanish  legend  is  a 
rationalistic  attempt  at  so  interpreting  the  old  tradi- 
tions as  to  make  them  possible  of  belief.  Tillemont, 
obliged   to   give    up   the   story  which    Leo  XIII.  has 

alguna  tierra,  desprovistos  de  cartilegos  y  partes  blandas  y  tan  deteri- 
orados  y  fragiles  que  no  existia  un  solo  hueso  entero  ni  completo  " 
{Recuerdos  de  un  Viaja  h  Santiago  de  Compostela^  p.  209.     Madrid,  1880). 
^  Lecture  on  the  Political  and  Religious  Development  of  Spain. 


THE  LEGENDS  OF  S.  I  AGO,  &-c,  13 

now  endorsed,  substituted  for  it  a  theory  which  he 
honestly  acknowledged  to  be  no  more  than  "  a  con- 
jecture without  proof."  The  body  of  S.  James,  he 
thought,  might  have  been  transported  from  Judea  to 
Galicia  in  the  seventh  or  eighth  century  owing  to  the 
Saracens  becoming  at  that  time  masters  of  the  East.^ 
This  theory  seemed  to  him  open  to  fewer  objections 
than  the  received  story,  ^'  and  it  makes  it  more  easy 
to  maintain  that  the  relics  at  Compostela  are  really 
those  of  S.  James  the  Greater."  ^  Gams  has  accepted 
this  theory  with  avidity,  and  has  added  to  it  several 
particulars  of  his  own.  His  additions  are,  that  S. 
James'  body,  having  been  buried  in  Jerusalem,  and 
having  rested  there  for  five  centuries,  was,  in  the 
time  of  Justinian,  translated  to  the  monastery  of 
Raithu,  a  little  to  the  south-west  of  Mount  Sinai ; 
that  in  the  seventh  century  it  was  carried  to  Zara- 
goza  and  placed  in  the  crypt  of  the  Church  of  the 
Pillar  (where  S.  Mary,  while  living  in  Palestine,  had 
appeared  to  S.  James  on  the  top  of  a  pillar  when  the 
Apostle  was  preaching  in  Spain) ;  ^  that  in  the  eighth 

1  Memoires  Ecdesiastiques,  vol.  i. 

2  Ibid. 

3  The  Zaragozan  legend  says  that  the  Apostles  left  Jerusalem  after 
the  stoning  of  Stephen,  having  received  their  conge  koTCi  the  Blessed 
Virgin  {accipiebant  congei'him  ab  ipsa  Gloriosd  Virgine  benedicfd) ;  that 
James  the  Greater  went  to  the  Virgin,  and  kissing  her  hands,  asked 
her  leave  to  go  and  her  blessing  with  pious  tears  ;  that  having  received 
her  permission,  he  went  to  Spain,  traversed  the  Asturias,  Galicia,  Cas- 
tile, and  Aragon,  converting  one  man  at  Oviedo  and  eight  at  Zaragoza  ; 
that  at  Zaragoza  it  was  his  custom  to  sleep  by  the  river-side,  and  on 
one  occasion  at  midnight  he  heard  the  angels  singing  Ave  Maria,  gratia 
plena,  which  were  the  first  words  of  the  Office  of  the  Virgin  ;  that 
he  knelt  down,  and  saw  the  Virgin  sitting  on  the  top  of  a  marble  pillar, 
between  two  choirs  of  a  thousand  angels  ;  that  after  the  completion  of 
the  Office  the  Blessed  Virgin  called  him  to  her,  and  desired  him  to  build 


t4  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

century  it  was  transported  to  Compostela ;  that  the 
persons  who  brought  it  to  Zaragoza  were  named 
Peter,  Athanasius,  and  Theodore ;  that  Peter  was 
named  Rathensis  from  Raithu  ;  that  this  word,  being 
misunderstood,  suggested  the  idea  of  a  boat  or  ship, 
ratts,  and  that  on  this  misconception  was  built  the 
notion  of  S.  James'  body  having  been  brought  by  sea 
to  Iria  Flavia.  This  Peter  is  identified  with  a  Peter 
Rathensis,  said  to  have  been  the  first  bishop  of  Braga, 
and  Athanasius  and  Theodore  have  been  called  the 
first  bishops  of  Zaragoza.  It  is  plain  that  this  hypo- 
thesis creates  as  many  difficulties  as  it  solves.  It  is 
ignored  and  impHcitly  condemned  by  Leo  XIII. 

The  legends  of  S.  lago  (in  their  unrationahsed 
form)  are  purely  Spanish.  There  was  another  legend, 
conflicting  in  some  respects  with  the  Spanish  story, 
which  took  its  origin  in  Rome,  and  was   the  Roman 

a  church  on  the  spot  to  her  memory,  and  to  place  the  altar  on  tlie  site 
of  the  pillar  on  which  she  was  sitting,  which  her  Son  had  sent  down 
from  heaven  by  the  hands  of  angels  ;  that  miracles  should  be  wrought 
there  in  behalf  of  all  who  asked  her  aid,  and  that  the  pillar  should 
remain  to  the  end  of  the  world  ;  that  when  James  had  returned  thanks 
to  Christ  and  His  Mother,  the  thousand  angel?,  who  had  attended  upon 
the  Virgin  since  the  time  of  her  conception  of  Christ,  took  up  the  Queen 
of  Heaven,  and  carrying  her  back  to  Jerusalem,  deposited  her  in  her 
chamber  ;  that  James  at  once  built  a  church  with  the  help  of  his  eight 
converts,  and  gave  it  the  title  oi  Santa  Maria  del  Pilar  ;  that  he  him- 
self  returned  to  Jerusalem  after  consecrating  the  church,  and  that  the 
Virgin  was  often  seen  singing  the  Matin  ]-)salms  with  choirs  of  angels 
in  this  which  was  the  first  church  dedicated  to  her  honour,  and  that 
she  wrouglit  many  miracles  in  it.  Historia  Apparitionis  DeiparcB  supra 
Columnam  Bea/o  Jacobo  apud  C(zsaraugusta7n  prcedicanti.  Ex  Cod. 
mevibraneo,  qiii  in  Archive  Sancla  Maria  de  Pilari  asservatur.  Florez 
devotes  a  dissertation  of  nearly  fifty  pages  to  the  proof  of  the  authen- 
ticity of  this  legend  (vol  xxx.  cap.  vi.  pp.  45-95).  He  is  scandalised 
at  Natalis  Alexander  questioning  a  tradition  which  is  confirmed  by 
tlie  authority  of  so  many  pontifical  bulls  and  the  Sacred  Congregation 
of  cardinals. 


THE  LEGENDS  OF  S.  I  AGO,  &-c.  15 

tradition  about  Spain.  This  legend  tells  how  Seven 
men  were  ordained  in  Rome  by  the  Apostles  and  sent 
into  Spain  (just  as  another  Seven  were  supposed  to  be 
sent  into  Gaul)  by  the  authority  of  the  Roman  See. 
The  Seven  were  :  (i.)  Torquatus,  who  became  Bishop 
of  Acci,  now  called  Guadix,  which  thus  gained  the 
reputation  of  being  the  first  episcopal  See  in  Spain  ;  ^ 
(2.)  Secundus,  Bishop  of  Avila,  near  Guadix ;  ^  (3.) 
Indaletius,  Bishop  of  Urci,  near  Almeria  ;  ^  (4.)  Ctesi- 
phon,  Bishop  of  Vergium  or  Berja,  in  the  Alpujarras ; 
(5.)  Caecilius,  Bishop  of  Illiberis  or  Elvira,  near  Granada 
(whence  Granada,  like  Compostela,  claimed  the  title 
of  an  apostolic  See) ;  ^  (6.)  Euphrasius,  Bishop  of  Illi- 
turgi  or  Andujar ;  ^  (7.)  Hesychius,  Bishop  of  Carcesa 
or  Cazorla.^  All  the  Seven  are  commemorated  in  a 
hymn/  probably    of  the   date  of  Cardinal  Ximenes, 

^  Padre  Suarez,  Hisioria  del  Obispado  de  Guadix  y  Baza.     Madrid, 
1696. 

2  Antonio  Cianca,  Historia  de  la  vida,  invencion,  milagros,  y  trans- 
lacion  de  San  Segundo,  primero  Obispo  de  Avila.     Madrid,  1595. 

^  Antonio  Lopez  Hidalgo,  Vida  deSan  Indalecio^y  Almeria  ihistrada 
en  su  antigiiedad,  origcn  y  grandeza.     Almeria,  1699. 

■*  Jose  liidalgo  Morales,  lliberia  0  Granada.     Granada,  1848. 
^  Antonio  Terrones  y  Robres,  Vida^  martirio,  translacion,  y  milagros 
de  S.  Ettfrasio^  Obispo  y  patron  de  Andujar.     Granada,  1657. 

^  Fernando  Torres,  Historia  de  los  santziarios  del  adelantamiento  de 
Cazorla.     Madrid,  1669. 

^  Hi  sunt  perspicui  luminis  indices, 
Torquatus,  Tesifons,  atque  Hesicius  ; 
His  Indaletius  sive  Secundus 
Juncti  Euphrasio  Cecilioque  sunt. 


Accis  continuo  proxima  fit  viris 

Bis  senis  stadiis,  qua  procul  insident  j 

Mittunt  asseclas  escula  quserere 

Quibus  fessa  dapibus  membra  reficei  ent. 

Illic  discipuli  idola  gentium 

Vanis  inspiciunt  ritibus  excoli ; 

Quos  dum  sic  agere  fletibus  immorant 


i6  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN, 

inserted  in  the  Mozarabic  office  books,  which  tells  of 
their  deliverance  from  their  enemies  at  Guadix  by 
the  miraculous  bursting  of  a  bridge,  and  of  the  con- 
version of  their  first  proselyte,  Luparia.-^ 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  legend  of  the  Seven  makes 
Guadix,  in  the  south-east  of  Spain,  the  centre  of 
operations,  while  the  legend  of  S.  lago  carries  us  to 
the  opposite  or  north-west  corner  of  the  peninsula. 

Terrentur  potius  ausibus  impiis. 

Mox  insana  fremens  turba  satellitum, 

In  his  cum  fidei  stigmata  nosceret, 

Ad  pontem  fluvii  usque  per  ardua 

Incursu  celeri  hos  agit  in  fugam, 

Sed  pons  prasvalido  murice  fortior 

In  partes  subit6  pronus  resolvitur 

Justos  ex  manibus  hostium  eruens, 

Hostes  flumineo  gurgite  subruens. 

Hsec  prima  fidei  est  via  plebium 

Inter  quos  mulier  sancta  Luparia 

Sanctos  aggrediens  cernit  et  obsecrat, 

Sanctorum  monita  pectore  collocans. 

Tunc  Christi  famula  attendens  obsequio 

Sanctorum,  statuit  condere  fabricam 

Quo  baptisterii  undse  patiscerent, 

Et  culpas  omnium  gratia  tergeret. 

lUic  sancta  Dei  foemina  tingitur, 

Et  vitse  lavacro  tincta  renascitur. 

Plebs  hie  continue  provolat  ad  fidem, 

Et  fit  catholico  dogmate  multiplex. 

Post  hasc  pontificum  chara  sodalitas 

Partitur  properans  septem  in  urbibus, 

Ut  divisa  locis  dogmata  funderent 

Et  sparsis  populos  ignibus  urerent. 

Per  hos  Ilcsperise  finibus  indita 

Inluxit  fidei  gratia  piceconis  : 

Hinc  signis  variis  atque  potentia 

Virtutum,  homines  credere  provocant. — Pa£-e  1112. 

^  Other  traditions  make  Luparia  to  have  been  a  lady  of  Galicia  and 
"a  friend  of  tlie  Spanish  king,"  who  was  converted  by  the  followers  of 
S.  James  on  seeing  them  slay  a  dragon  which  she  had  set  upon  them, 
and  tame  some  bulls  which  were  to  have  gored  them  to  death.  See 
Morales,  Coronka,  Lib.  ix.  cap.  vii. 


THE  LEGENDS  OF  S.  I  AGO,  &-c.  17 

The  followers  of  S.  James  are,  however,  often  con- 
founded with  the  Seven,  and  they  are  identified  in 
the  Roman  Breviary.  In  the  earlier  form  of  the 
legend  of  the  Seven  they  were  said  to  have  been 
ordained  at  Rome  by  the  Apostles,  that  is,  by  S.  Peter 
and  S.  Paul ;  the  last  revision  of  the  Breviary  attri- 
butes their  consecration  and  mission  to  S.  Peter  alone. 

Other  legendary  persons  of  the  same  date  are 
Xantippe,  her  husband  Probus,  her  sister  Polyxena, 
and  Philotheus,  who  were  the  converts  of  S.  Paul. 
Probus  is  said  in  one  story  to  have  been  Prefect  of 
Spain  in  the  time  of  Claudius  (and  therefore  before 
S.  Paul  could  have  gone  to  that  country) ;  in  another 
he  is  called  a  friend  of  Nero's.  His  wife,  Xantippe, 
meeting  S.  Paul  in  a  market-place  (no  further  note  of 
locality  is  given),  persuaded  her  husband  to  invite  him 
into  her  house ;  and  as  soon  as  he  had  entered  she 
saw  written  in  golden  letters  on  his  forehead,  *^  Paul, 
the  preacher  of  Christ."  Thereupon  she  became  a 
catechumen,  and  was  baptized  with  her  husband  and 
the  Prefect  Philotheus,  and  all  the  inhabitants  of  the 
region.  Polyxena  did  not  become  a  convert  at  once, 
but  having  heard  Andrew  preach  at  Patras,  she  too 
was  baptized,  and  returning  to  Spain,  spent  the  rest 
of  her  life  with  her  sister. 

To  this  apocryphal  Hst  must  be  added  S.  Rufus, 
son  of  Simon  the  Cyrenian,  said  to  have  been  the 
first  Bishop  of  Tortosa;  S.  Saturninus,  the  young 
man  who  had  five  barley  loaves,  the  first  Bishop  of 
Tolosa ;  S.  Peter  of  Rates,  first  Bishop  of  Bracara;  S. 
Gerontius,  first  Bishop  of  Italica;  S.  Firmin,  first  Bishop 
of  Pamplona  ;   S.  Eugenius,  first  Bishop  of  Toledo. 


CHAPTER  II. 

HOW  CHRISTIANITY  ENTERED  SPAIN. 

There  is  no  reason  for  doubting  that  S.  Paul  fulfilled 
his  expressed  purpose  of  visiting  Spain.-^  We  know 
that  he  was  strongly  averse  to  giving  up  the  plans 
that  he  had  formed  for  his  missionary  journeys. 
Those  plans  were  not  made  ''  according  to  the  flesh," 
that  is,  from  a  man's  whims  and  fancies,  but  under  a 
sense  of  solemn  obligation,  and  if  he  should  change 
them  without  necessity,^  he  considered  himself  open  to 
the  charge  of  ''  lightness."  That  he  was  very  anxious 
to  get  as  far  as  Spain  is  clear  from  the  words  that 
he  uses  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  which  seem  to 
indicate  that,  much  as  he  desired  to  go  to  Rome,  he 
regarded  his  visit  to  the  capital  of  the  world  as 
subsidiary  to  his  Spanish  journey.^  After  his  first 
imprisonment  at  Rome,  he  had  time  and  opportunity 
for  carrying  out  his  cherished  purpose.  His  first 
journey  on  his  release  appears  to  have  been  towards 
the  East,  and  thence  adopting  the  sea-route  via  Mar- 
seilles, in  order  to  avoid  the  Neronian  persecution  of 
the  Christians  going  on  at  Rome,  he  would  seem 
to  have  "  taken  his  journey  into  Spain  "  according  to 
his  original  proposal.  What  part  of  Spain  he  visited 
we  cannot  tell,  for  it  is  the  legends  only  which  assign 

^  Rom.  XV.  24-2S.  2  2  Cor.  i.  17.  ^  Rom.  xv.  24-28. 

18 


HOW  CHRISTIANITY  ENTERED  SPAIN.  19 

the  north-west  to  S.  James,  the  north  to  S.  Paul,  and 
the  south-east  to  the  Seven.  He  would,  no  doClbt, 
have  gone,  according  to  his  custom,  to  those  cities 
where  he  knew  that  there  were  Jewish  synagogues  and 
communities,  and  have  made  them  the  centres  of  his 
missionary  work.  The  Greek  settlements  would  have 
had  an  attraction  to  him  owing  to  his  own  familiarity 
with  the  language,  and  because  Christianity  was  as 
yet  almost  confined  to  men  who  used  the  Hebrew  or 
the  Greek  tongue.  If  his  journey  was  made  by  sea, 
he  would  have  landed  at  one  of  the  southern  ports 
of  Spain  on  the  coast  from  Barcelona  to  Cadiz,  and 
have  made  his  way  inland,  perhaps  returning  east- 
ward through  Gaul.  That  he  passed  over  from  thence 
into  Britain  must  be  set  aside  as  a  conjecture  resting 
on  no  sufficient  grounds. 

We  have  almost  contemporary  evidence  of  S.  Paul's 
journey  to  Spain  in  Clement  of  Rome,  who  says  that 
"he  taught  righteousness  to  the  whole  world,  and 
reached  the  boundary  of  the  west."  ^  This  expression, 
the  "boundary  of  the  west,"  is  not  merely  a  rhetorical 
flourish  ;  it  had  a  known  meaning,  and  that  meaning 
was  Spain.^  The  Muratorian  Fragment  is  also  of  suffi- 
ciently early  date  for  its  testimony  to  be  of  value,  and 
it  speaks  plainly  of  "  the  journey  of  Paul  from  the  city 
to   Spain."  3      The  date  of  this  fragment  is  probably 

1  Kai  ewi  rh  ripfxa  rijs  dvaecos  eKdoov  {Epist.  ad  Cor,  i.  5), 

2  Lucan  speaks  of  "  extremi  orbis  Iberi "  [FharsaL,  vii.  541);  Juv- 
enal, "  A  Gadibus  usque  Auroram,"  meaning  from  the  extreme  west 
to  the  extreme  east  {Sat.  x.  i) ;  Silius  Italicus,  "  Hominum  finem 
Gades  Calpemque  "  {Ptmica,  i.  141);  Justin,  "  Hispania  Europse  ter- 
minos  claudit "  (Lib.  xliv.  i) ;  Pliny  uses  the  expressions  "ab  occasu 
solis"  and  "a  Gaditano  fretu  "  as  equivalent  [Hist.  Nat.,  ill.  i). 

^  Antiqtiit.  Jtal.,  iii.  353. 

G 


20  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

about  A.D.  170.  Later  writers  are  almost  unanimous 
in  their  testimony  ;  but  perhaps  their  statements  are 
rather  conclusions  drawn  from  S.  Paul's  words  in  Rom. 
XV.  than  independent  witness.  Such  are  Athanasius/ 
Cyril  of  Jerusalem/  Epiphanius,"'  Chrysostom.^ 

S.  Paul's  visit,  lasting  about  twelve  months,  would 
have  been  an  important  factor  in   the  Christianisation 
of  the   country ;    but   there  were  other  channels  by 
which  the  Gospel  became  disseminated   in  the  Penin- 
sula more  readily  than  in   any  other  Western  country 
with  the  exception  of  the  south  of  Gaul.      Spain  had 
long  been   under  the   influence  of  Rome.  ,    After  the 
expulsion  of  the  Carthaginians,  B.C.  205,  it  was  divided 
into    two  Roman   provinces,   named   respectively  His- 
pania  citerior,  lying  between  the  Ebro,  the  Pyrenees, 
and  the  sea,  and  Hispania  ulterior,  to  the  west  of  the 
Ebro,   the    further   boundaries  of  which  were  uncer- 
tain.     Each    province  was   governed   by  a  praetor  or 
proconsul,  who   resided  at  Tarraco  and  Corduba,   or 
occasionally  at  Gades,  and   in   each  two  legions  were 
permanently    stationed.       In    the    time    of  Augustus 
Hispania    ulterior  was    divided    into    two    provinces, 
Bsetica,  to  the  south,  and  Lusitania,  to  the  west,  and 
Hispania  citcrior,  with  its  boundaries  enlarged  towards 
the  north,  now  took  the  name  of  Tarraconensis  ;   the 
scat  of  government  for  the  westernmost  province  was 
Augusta   Emerita.       Each    of    these     provinces    was 
divided,  for  the   administration   of  the  law,  into  dis- 
tricts  called  Conventus^  in   the   chief  towns   of  which 
the  courts  were    held   by  the    Roman  judges.      The 
most  important  of  these   towns  were  Tarraca  (Tarra- 

Ad  Dracont.  -  Catech.,  xvii.  ^  Uacr.,  xxvii.  6. 

Horn,  in  2  Tim.  iv   20. 


HOW  CHRISTIANITY  ENTERED  SPAIN.         21 

gona),  Carthago  Nova  (Cartagena),  Csesar-Augiista 
(Zaragoza),  Bracara  Augusta  (Braga),  Gades  (Cadiz), 
Corduba  (Cordova),  Astigi  (Ecija),  Hispalis  (Seville), 
Augusta  Emerita  (Merida).  If  we  examine  the  situa- 
tion of  these  placeS;  we  shall  see  that  a  network  of 
Roman  civilisation  was  thrown  over  the  whole  of 
the  Peninsula  by  the  time  that,  in  the  providence  of 
God,  Christianity  was  introduced  into  it.  Nor  was 
there  merely  a  superficial  varnish  of  Roman  manners 
and  unobserved  laws.  The  last  resistance  to  Roman 
arms  was  overcome  by  b.c.  25,  and  the  Imperial  policy 
of  establishing  colonies  such  as  Pax  Julia  (Beja),  Pax 
Augusta  (Badajoz),  besides  Merida  and  Zaragoza,  had 
introduced  a  considerable  Italian  and  non-Iberian 
element  into  the  population  of  the  country.  This 
element  was  further  strengthened  by  the  system  of 
permanently  stationing  four  legions  in  Spain ;  the 
soldiers  belonging  to  these  legions,  living  year  after 
year  in  the  country,  came  to  prefer  it  to  their  native 
land,  married  Spanish  wives,  and,  on  the  legions  being 
disbanded,  remained  in  what  had  become  to  them  a 
home.  Further,  communications  between  Italy  and 
Spain  had  been  made  easy  by  the  military  roads 
constructed  by  Pompey  over  the  Pyrenees,  and  by 
the  vessels  which  traded  between  the  ports  of  Italy 
and  Marseilles,  Tarragona,  and  Cadiz.  Thus  Spain 
became  the  favourite  country  of  Roman  emigrants, 
and  natives  of  Spain  regarded  themselves  as  Roman 
rather  than  Spanish.  Lucan,  the  Senecas,  Columella, 
\Pomponius  Mela,  Quinctilian,  Martial,  and  even  Pru- 
dentius,  were  to  all  intents  and  purposes  Romans. 
Spain,  therefore,  was  in  a  position  to  answer  readily 


22  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

to  any  impulse  given  from  Rome,  and  communications 
were  so  frequent  that  no  wave  of  thought  or  belief 
would  pass  over  Italy  without  extending  beyond  the 
Alps  and  beyond  the  Pyrenees.  Christianity,  coming 
from  the  East,  made  a  lodgment  in  Rome,  and,  in  the 
state  of  the  civilised  world,  what  affected  the  capital 
affected  the  provinces  (some  more,  some  less,  accord- 
ing to  their  actual  propinquity  or  their  closer  or 
looser  relationship).  In  the  middle  of  the  second  cen- 
tury a  flourishing  Church  had  established  itself  at 
Lyons  and  Vienne,  and  from  thence,  as  well  as  directly 
from  Rome,  the  Christian  faith  appears  to  have  spread 
across  the  Pyrenees  into  Spain.  No  genuine  tradi- 
tions of  the  Spanish  Church  reach  further  back  than 
the  third  century,  or  we  might  expect  to  find  more 
evidence  than  is  forthcoming  of  the  close  connexion 
between  the  earliest  Gallic  and  Iberian  Churches,  to 
which,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter,  the  structure  of  the 
old  Spanish  liturgy  bore  testimony. 

There  is  a  striking  and  interesting  similarity  be- 
tween the  Churches  of  Spain  and  England  in  their 
origin  and  early  estate.  In  both  countries  the  spread 
of  Christianity  was  due  to  the  ebb  and  flow  between 
the  capital  and  the  provinces,  which  carried  men  and 
thoughts  to  and  fro.  Both  countries  were  indebted 
to  the  Church  of  Southern  Gaul  for  their  immediate 
conversion.  Both  of  them  became  gradually  though 
rapidly  leavened,  without  any  great  events  to  draw 
the  eyes  of  the  world  to  them,  and  without  any  great 
missionaries,  with  whose  name  their  conversion  is 
connected  (for  it  is  not  probable  that  S.  Paul's  visit 
to    Spain  was   of  sufficient    length   to   produce  great 


HOW  CHRISTIANITY  ENTERED  SPAIN.         23 

results  or  some  Spanish  traditions  to  that  effect  would 
have  survived).  Both  countries,  after  the  inhabitants 
were  civiHsed  and  Christianised,  were  invaded  by 
barbarous  hordes  of,  in  one  case,  heathens,  in  the 
other,  heterodox  Christians,  which  made  a  break  in 
the  ecclesiastical  life  of  the  two  nations.  In  both 
countries  the  conquering  and  the  conquered  after  a 
time  melted  into  one  body  and  formed  one  Church. 
Both  countries,  after  a  period  of  independence,  sub- 
mitted to  the  Papal  sway.  After  this  the  parallel  is 
less  exact,  for  no  Moorish  or  Mohammedan  mission 
overwhelmed  England,  and  Spain  has  not  recovered, 
or  sought  to  recover,  the  ecclesiastical  liberty  which 
England  has  attained. 

The  history  of  the  Spanish  Church  falls  into  five 
divisions  :— (i.)  The  period  preceding  the  entrance  of 
the  northern  invaders,  a.d.  66-409  ;  (2.)  The  period 
during  which  the  Gothic  conquerors  were  still  Arians, 
A.D.  414-589;  (3.)  The  period  from  the  conversion  of 
Reccared  to  the  Moorish  conquest,  a.d.  589-710; 
(4.)  The  period  of  the  Moorish  domination  and  con- 
tests, A.D.  7 10-149 1  ;  (5.)  The  period  beginning  with 
Fernando  and  Isabel,  and  continuing  down  to  the 
present  time  with  such  changes  as  were  stamped  upon 
it  by  Charles  V.  and  Philip  II.,  the  Inquisition,  and 
the  order  of  the  Jesuits,  the  Bourbon  kings,  and  the 
French  Revolution.  The  singularity  of  the  history  is 
the  decisive  break  which  occurs  between  the  several 
periods.  The  history  of  each  might  be  almost  the 
history  of  a  new  nation  and  a  different  Church,  and 
yet.  on  looking  closer,  we  see  that  there  are  charac- 
teristics which  belong  to  them  all  in  common. 


CHAPTER   III. 

ROMAN  SPAIN— THE  PRM-DIOCLETIAN  TIMES. 

From  the  time  that  we  lose  sight  of  the  vanishing 
and  uncertain  figure  of  S.  Paul,  the  Spanish  Church 
totally  disappears  for  some  two  hundred  years.  At 
the  end  of  that  time  we  have  evidence  of  its  having 
spread  throughout  the  Peninsula,  but  for  those  two 
hundred  years  not  a  shred  of  authentic  history  is 
forthcoming.  We  may  suppose  that,  according  to 
custom  elsewhere  observed,  bishops  were  appointed 
at  the  chief  centres  of  population^  The  capitals  of  the 
three  provinces  Tarragona,  Cordova,  and  Merida  were 
probably  first  supplied  each  with  a  bishop.  The  chief 
towns  of  each  Convetttus,  Cartagena,  Zaragoza,  Braga, 
Cadiz,  Ecija,  Seville,  and  the  Roman  colonies,  Beja, 
Badajoz,  and  other  large  towns,  no  doubt  became 
Episcopal  Sees,  and  under  the  bishops  was  the  usual 
staff  of  presbyters  and  deacons.  We  may  suppose, 
from  the  analogy  of  Ephesus  and  Crete,  that  the  first 
bishops  or  apostolic  delegates  were  appointed  by  S. 
Paul,  and  "  for  this  cause  left  in  "  Spain,  ''  that  they 
might  set  in  order  the  things  that  were  wanting, 
and  ordain  elders  in  every  city ; "  ^  and  that  they 
"  laid  hands  "  on  others  as  was  needed.^  When  the 
Spanish  Church  emerges   into  view,  a.d.  254,  we  find 

1  'I'ilus  i.  5.  "I  Tim.  iv.   14,  v.  22. 


ROMAN  SPAIN.  25 

mentioned  a  joint-bishopric  of  Leon  and  Astorga/  and 
a  bishopric  of  Merida ;  and  not  only  so,  but  we  find 
a  system  of  church  government  established  and  recog- 
nised, in  accordance  with  which  it  was  the  custom  for 
bishops  to  be  elected  in  the  presence  of  the  whole 
body  of  the  bishops  of  the  province  ;  showing  (i)  that 
the  Church  had  adapted  itself  to  the  civil  divisions  of 
the  country ;  (2)  that  in  each  of  the  three  civil  pro- 
vinces then  existing  there  were  many  bishops ;  (3) 
that  those  bishops  had  an  undefined  right  of  assent 
or  veto  on  the  appointment  of  a  colleague ;  (4)  that 
no  prelate  outside  the  province  had  any  right  of  inter- 
ference, except  an  emergency  occurred,  in  which  case 
all  bishops  had  that  right  equally. 

The  occasion  on  which  the  veil  of  a  happy  obscurity 
which  had  hung  over  the  Spanish  Church  for  two 
hundred  years  was  raised  is  the  following.  Basilides 
and  Martial,  Bishops  of  the  Sees  of  Leon-Astorga 
and  Merida,  had  given  way  in  the  persecution  under 
Callus  or  some  local  outbreak  of  anti-Christian  zeal, 
and  had  delivered  to  the  Roman  magistrate  a  libellus, 
declaring  their  renunciation  of  Christianity  and  return 
to  Paganism.  They  were  charged,  also,  with  other 
offences.  For  these  crimes  they  were  deposed,  and 
Felix  and  Sabinus  were  in  all  proper  form  and  cere- 
mony substituted  in  their  room.  Basilides  indeed 
had  voluntarily  abdicated  and  begged  to  be  admitted 
to  lay  communion  ;  but  when  their  successors  were 
appointed,  both  one   and   the   other  were  unwilling  to 

^  A  Roman  road  joined  these  two  places.  Leon  derives  its  name 
from  having  been  the  station  of  the  Legio  VII.  Geniina,  raised  by 
Galba  in  Spain  (Tac.  I/isf.  ii.  11).  Astorga  is  the  modern  name  of 
Asturia  Augusta,  the  capital  of  Asturia. 


26  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

submit.  Basilides  went  to  Rome,  and  laying  an  ex 
parte  statement  before  Bishop  Stephen,  besought  his 
support.  Stephen,  in  ignorance  of  what  had  really 
taken  place,  embraced  his  cause.  Basilides  hurried 
back  to  Spain,  and  with  Martial  demanded  to  be  re- 
instated. The  local  churches  of  Leon-Astorga  and 
Merida  were  feeble,  and  felt  the  need  of  some  external 
authority  to  set  against  that  of  the  Bishop  of  the 
Roman  province.  They  turned  to  S.  Cyprian  and 
the  North  African  Church.  Felix,  a  presbyter  of 
Leon,  representing  the  Church  of  Leon  and  Astorga, 
Laelius,  a  deacon,  in  the  name  of  the  Church  of 
Merida,  another  Felix,  a  presbyter  or  Bishop  of  Zara- 
goza,  appealed  to  the  great  Bishop  and  Church  of 
Carthage  for  advice  and  support.  Cyprian  gathered 
a  Council  of  thirty-seven  prelates,  which,  in  its  cor- 
porate capacity,  addressed  a  letter  to  Felix  of  Leon 
and  Laelius.  The  African  bishops  assured  them  that 
the  deposition  of  Basilides  and  Martial  was  made 
rightly  and  in  accordance  with  the  canons  of  the 
Church  Catholic  ;  that  the  election  and  consecration  of 
Felix  and  Sabinus  had  been  canonically  performed ; 
that  they  were  to  disregard  Stephen's  interference, 
who  had  not  acted  with  proper  circumspection,  and 
had  allowed  himself  to  be  imposed  upon  by  Basil- 
ides;  that  they  were  to  continue  to  regard  Felix  and 
Sabinus  as  their  lawful  bishops,  and  that  Basilides 
and  Martial  might  be  received  back  only  as  penitents. 
The  authority  of  Cyprian  was  infinitely  greater  than 
that  of  Stephen,  and  the  theory  that  the  Bishop  of 
Rome  had  any  right  of  extra-diocesan  intervention 
above  or  beyond   that  which  every  bishop  enjoys  had 


ROMAN  SPAIN.  27 

not  yet  been  broached.  The  judgment  of  Cyprian 
and  Cyprian's  Council  was  acted  on,  and  peace  re- 
turned to  the  Spanish  Churches. 

The  lapse  of  Basilides  and  Martial  (of  the  circum- 
stances of  which  we  are  ignorant)  shows  that  there 
was  a  persecution  going  on  in  Spain  in  the  year  254 
— a  continuation  probably  of  that  known  under  the 
name  of  the  persecution  of  Callus.  The  history  of 
the  next  fifty  years  is  merely  a  record  of  the.  resist- 
ance offered  by  martyrs  and  confessors  in  the  per- 
secutions that  followed,  namely,  that  of  Valerian, 
A.D.  256-260,  and  Diocletian,  a.d.  303—304.  There 
is  an  unfortunate  difficulty  in  distinguishing  between 
genuine  and  apocryphal  accounts  of  martyrdom,  for 
each  city  vied  with  its  neighbour  in  its  claims  for  the 
antiquity  of  its  origin  and  the  number  of  its  martyrs. 
Our  best  authority  is  the  Spaniard  Prudentius,  who 
has  written  a  series  of  fourteen  poems  in  honour  of  the 
martyrs,  called  Peristephanon  Liber}  Most  of  those 
whom  he  commemorates  were  victims  in  the  Diocletian 
persecution,  but  in  his  hymn  on  the  eighteen  martyrs 
of  Zaragoza  he  mentions  Fructuosus  and  his  two  com- 
panions as  "  the  offering  of  Tarragona ;  "   and  Fruc- 

1  Aurelius  Prudentius  Clemens  was  bom  in  the  year  348.  He  gives 
us  an  autobiography  in  a  short  piece  prefixed  to  his  poems,  from  which 
it  appears  that  he  began  life  as  a  barrister  at  Rome,  and  in  middle 
life  rose  to  high  office  as  a  provincial  governor  and  at  the  imperial 
court.  In  his  later  life  he  returned  to  his  native  land  and  devoted 
himself  to  religious  poetry.  He  was  born  in  Tarraconensis  province 
and  near  the  Pyrenees  {Peristeph.  x.  147),  but  the  exact  spot  of  his 
birth  is  not  known.  He  calls  Calaliorra  nostrum  oppidwn  in  Peristeph. 
i.  116,  and  again  applies  the  word  nostra  to  the  town  in  vii.  31  ;  but 
he  also  addresses  Zaragoza  as  decus  nostrum,  and  speaks  of  Caesar- 
Augusta  as  nostra  in  vii.  (>},,  141  ;  and  Taragona  is  nostra  urbs  in 
X.  143. 


28  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

tuosus  probably  perished  in  the  Valerian  persecution, 
A.D.  259.  The  following  account  is  given  of  his 
martyrdom/  and  we  may  take  it  as  an  example  of 
martyrdoms  undergone  by  others  whose  names  are 
unknown  on  earth  : — 

"When  Valerian  and  Gallienus  were  emperors 
and  -^milian  and  Bassus  consuls,  on  Sunday,  January 
16,  Bishop  Fructuosus  and  the  deacons  Augurius  and 
Eulogius  were  arrested.  While  Bishop  Fructuosus 
was  lying  down  in  his  chamber,  the  soldiers  arrived 
at  his  house — that  is,  Aurelius,  Festucius,  ^lius, 
Pollentius,  Donatus,  and  Maximus.  When  he  heard 
the  sound  of  their  feet,  he  rose  at  once  and  came  out 
to  them  in  his  slippers.  The  soldiers  said,  ^Come, 
the  President  sends  for  you  with  your  deacons.' 
Bishop  Fructuosus  said,  '  Let  us  go,  or,  if  you  will 
allow  me,  I  will  put  on  my  shoes.'  The  soldiers 
said,  'You  are  quite  welcome.'  On  their  arrival  they 
were  put  in  prison,  but  Fructuosus,  sure  of  martyr- 
dom, and  rejoicing  in  the  crown  of  the  Lord  to  which 
he  was  called,  continued  to  pray  without  ceasing. 
And  the  brethren  came  to  him,  comforting  him  and 
praying  him  to  keep  them  in  mind.  Next  day  he 
baptized  one  of  our  brethren,  called  Rogatian,  in 
prison.  They  spent  six  days  in  prison,  and  were 
brought  out  on  January  21,  and  were  tried,  ^mi- 
lian,  the  President,  said,  '  Send  in  Bishop  Fructuosus, 
Augurius,  and  Eulogius.'  The  officer  replied,  '  They 
are  here.'  ^milian  said  to  Bishop  Fructuosus,  '  Have 
you  heard  the  Emperors*  commands  ?  '  Fructuosus 
said,  '  I  do  not  know  what  their  commands  are  ;  but 
^  Ruinart,  Acfa  Martyrum  sinccra,     Ratisbon,  1859. 


ROMAN  SPAIN.  29 

I  am  a  Christian.'  JEmiVmn  said,  '  Their  commands 
are  that  the  gods  should  be  worshipped.'  Fructu- 
osus  said,  '  I  worship  one  God,  who  made  heaven  and 
earth,  the  sea,  and  all  that  in  them  is.'  iEmilian 
said,  *  Do  you  know  that  there  are  gods  ? '  Bishop 
Fructuosus  said,  '  I  do  not.'  ^milian  said,  '  You 
shall  know  soon.'  Bishop  Fructuosus  looked  up  to 
the  Lord,  and  began  to  pray  within  himself.  ^Emi- 
lian  said,  '  Why,  who  will  be  listened  to,  or  feared, 
or  adored,  if  the  gods  are  not  worshipped,  nor  the 
Emperors'  portraits  adored  ? '  To  Augurius,  the 
deacon,  he  said,  '  Do  not  listen  to  the  words  of  Fruc- 
tuosus.' The  deacon  Augurius  said,  '  I  worship 
Almighty  God.'  ^milian  said  to  the  deacon  Eulo- 
gius,  '  Do  you  worship  Fructuosus  ?  '  The  deacon 
Eulogius  said,  '  I  do  not  worship  Fructuosus,  but  I 
worship  Him  whom  Fructuosus  also  worships.'  JEmi- 
lian  said  to  Bishop  Fructuosus,  '  Are  you  a  bishop  ? ' 
Bishop  Fructuosus  answered,  '  I  am.'  ^Emihan  said, 
'You  were.'  And  he  gave  sentence  that  they  should 
be  burnt  alive. 

''And  while  Bishop  Fructuosus  was  being  led  to 
the  amphitheatre  with  his  deacons,  the  people  began 
to  condole  with  him,  because  he  was  the  object  of  so 
much  love,  not  only  on  the  part  of  the  brethren,  but 
also  of  the  heathen.  For  he  was  such  a  man  as  the 
Holy  Spirit  by  the  mouth  of  blessed  Paul  the  Apostle, 
that  vessel  of  election,  the  teacher  of  the  Gentiles, 
said  that  a  bishop  ought  to  be.  Consequently  the 
brethren,  who  knew  that  he  was  going  to  so  great 
glory,  rejoiced  rather  than  lamented,  and  when  several 
out  of  brotherly  love  offered   them  a  cup  which  they 


30  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

had  mixed  to  drink,  he  said,  '  It  is  not  yet  time  for 
breaking  our  fast,'  as  it  was  only  the  fourth  hour  of 
the  day.  For  they  had  solemnly  celebrated  a  fast 
in  prison  on  the  Wednesday,  and  therefore  on  the 
Friday  he  was  joyfully  and  happily  hastening  to 
break  his  fast  with  the  martyrs  and  prophets  in  the 
Paradise  which  God  has  prepared  for  those  who  love 
Him.  When  he  reached  the  amphitheatre,  his  reader 
came  to  him  at  once,  named  Augustades,  with  tears, 
and  praying  that  he  might  be  allowed  to  take  off  his 
shoes.  The  blessed  martyr  answered,  '  Let  be,  my 
son ;  I  will  take  off  my  shoes  myself  without  trepida- 
tion, and  rejoicing  and  certain  of  the  Lord's  promise.' 
As  soon  as  he  had  taken  off  his  shoes,  our  brother 
and  fellow-soldier,  Felix,  came  up  to  him,  and  seized 
his  right  hand,  begging  him  to  remember  him ;  to 
whom  holy  Fructuosus  replied  in  a  clear  voice,  so 
that  all  heard,  '  I  must  have  in  mind  the  Catholic 
Church,  spread  from  the  east  to  the  west.* 

"So  when  he  was  come  to  the  entrance  of  the^ 
amphitheatre,  where  the  soldiers,  whose  names  I 
have  mentioned  before,  were  on  guard,  and  was 
about  to  enter  for  his  unfading  crown  rather  than 
punishment.  Bishop  Fructuosus  spoke,  moved  by  the 
Holy  Spirit,  whose  mouthpiece  he  was,  so  that  our 
brethren  could  hear  him,  '  You  will  not  be  without  a 
pastor  now  or  in  the  future,  for  the  love  and  promise 
of  the  Lord  cannot  fail.  The  present  spectacle  is 
but  the  weakness  of  one  hour.'  So  he  consoled  the 
brethren,  and  he  and  his  companions  entered  into 
salvation,  happy  in^  their  martyrdom  and  worthy  to 
receive  the  enjoyment  of  the  promise  of  Holy  Scrip- 


ROMAN  SPAIN.  31 

ture.  They  were  like  Ananias,  Azarias,  and  Misael, 
so  that  even  a  divine  Trinity  might  be  seen  in  their 
case,  for  as  soon  as  they  were  in  the  fire,  the  Father 
was  present,  and  the  Son  helped  them,  and  the  Holy 
Spirit  walked  with  them  in  the  midst  of  the  fire. 
When  the  bands  by  which  their  hands  had  been 
bound  were  consumed,  mindful  of  their  usual  custom 
of  praying  to  God,  they  joyfully  knelt  down,  with  no 
fear  for  their  resurrection,  stretching  out  their  hands 
in  the  form  of  the  Lord's  trophy  of  victory  (the  cross), 
and  prayed  to  the  Lord  until  they  gave  up  their  lives 
together. 

^' After  this  there  were  the  usual  mighty  acts  of 
God,  and  the  heavens  were  opened  in  the  sight  of 
our  brethren,  Babylas  and  Mygdotius,  who  belonged 
to  the  household  of  iEmilian,'  and  they  showed  to 
iEmilian's  daughter,  their  mistress  in  the  flesh,  holy 
Bishop  Fructuosus  and  his  deacons  going  up  to 
heaven  with  crowns  on  their  heads,  while  the  stakes 
to  which  they  had  been  bound  were  still  standing. 
And  they  called  ^Emilian,  saying,  '  Come  and  see 
the  men  whom  you  have  condemned,  in  what  guise 
they  are  restored  to  heaven  and  their  hope ; '  but 
when  he  had  come,  he  was  not  worthy  to  see  them. 

"  But  the  brethren  were  sorrowful  and  anxious  as 
being  left  without  their  pastor ;  not  that  they  grieved 
for  Fructuosus,  but  rather  longed  for  him,  remember- 
ing the  faith  and  agony  of  the  three  martyrs.  When 
night  fell,  they  came  hurriedly  to  the  amphitheatre, 
bearing  wine  with  which  to  extinguish  the  flames, 
still  burning  round  the  half-consumed  bodies.  When 
they  had  done  this,  they  collected  the  ashes  of  the 


32  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

martyrs,  and  each  got  for  himself  as  much  of  them 
as  he  could.  But  here  too  were  the  mighty  acts  of 
our  Lord  and  Saviour  apparent,  that  believers  might 
have  their  faith  increased,  and  an  example  might  be 
exhibited  to  babes.  For  the  martyr,  Fructuosus,  had 
in. his  own  passion  and  resurrection  to  fulfil  a  promise 
which  in  his  lifetime,  by  the  mercy  of  God,  he  had  made 
in  our  Lord  and  Saviour.  He  appeared  therefore  after 
his  passion  to  the  brethren,  and  desired  them  to  restore 
without  delay  whatever  of  his  ashes  any  one  had  taken 
possession  of  through  affection  to  him,  and  to  take  care 
that  they  should  all  be  buried  together  in  one  place. 

"  Fructuosus  and  his  deacons  also  appeared  to 
iEmilian,  who  had  condemned  him,  dressed  in  bright 
robes,  according  to  promise,  reproaching  and  mocking 
him,  telling  him  that  he  had  gained  nothing,  that  it 
was  in  vain  that  he  thought  to  have  deprived  them 
of  their  body  upon  earth,  for  he  could  now  see  how 
glorious  they  were.  Oh,  blessed  martyrs,  who  have 
been  proved  by  the  fire  as  precious  gold,  robed  with 
the  breastplate  of  faith  and  the  helmet  of  salvation, 
crowned  with  the  diadem  and  crown  which  fades  not 
away,  because  they  have  trampled  on  the  head  of 
the  devil  !  Oh,  blessed  martyrs,  who  have  reached 
a  worthy  habitation  in  heaven,  standing  at  the  right 
hand  of  Christ,  blessing  God  the  Father  Almighty  and 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  His  Son  !  But  the  Lord  re- 
ceived His  martyrs  in  peace,  through  the  good  con- 
fession that  they  had  made;  to  Him  be  honour  and 
glory  for  ever  and  ever.      Amen,"  ^ 

^  Piudenlius  lias  versified  the  Acts  of  the  Martyrdom  in  a  special 
hymn  devoted    to   the  honour  of  Fructuo.-us,   and   has  quaintly  and 


ROMAN  SPAIN.  33 

Fructuosus,  as  was  natural,  became  the  patron 
saint  of  Tarragona,  the  chief  city  of  one  of  the  three 
provinces  of  Spain.  Other  cities  must  have  their 
patrons  and  defenders  also.  Out  of  this  desire  pro- 
bably sprang  the  story  of  Justa  and  Rufina,  the  pro- 
tectresses of  Seville.  According  to  the  traditions 
of  Seville,  which  at  a  late  date  found  their  way  into 
the  Mozarabic  Liturgy,^  they  were  two  sisters  of  the 
labouring  class  who  made  their  livelihood  by  selling 
earthenware  vessels.  On  one  occasion  the  image  of 
the  heathen  goddess  Salambo  was  being  carried  in 
procession  through  Seville,  when  the  sisters  threw 
themselves  upon  it,  cast  it  to  the  ground,  and  broke 
it  into  fragments.  The  worshippers,  furious  at  the 
insult,  dragged  Justa  and  Rufina  to  Diogenian,  the 
governor  of  Seville,  who  tortured  them  with  the  rack 
and  hot  pincers,  and  consigned  them  to  prison.  After 
a  few  days  he  had  to  go  to  a  place  in  the  Sierra 
Morena,  and  he  ordered  the  sisters  to  follow  him  with 
bare  feet.  Justa  died  in  prison,  and  her  body  was 
thrown  into  a  stream,  but  rescued  thence  by  Bishop 
Sabinus.  Rufina  was  strangled  in  her  cell,  her 
corpse  burnt,  and  the  ashes  buried.  They  became 
the  patronesses  of  the   city,  and   in  the  great  storm 

prettily  referred  to  the  threefold  martyrdom  as  follows  in  another  of 
his  poems  : — 

"  Tu  tribus  gemmis  diadema  pulchrum 
OfFeres  Christo,  genitrix  piorum, 
Tarraco,  intexit  cui  Fructuosus 

Sutile  virclum. 
Nomen  hoc  gemmae  strofio  illigatum  est, 
Emicant  juxta  lapides  gemelli, 
Ardet  et  splendor  parilis  duorum 
Igne  corusco." 
-^Hyjiin  ill  Praise  of  the  Eighteen  Martyrs  of  ZaragOza,  21-28. 
^  Sanctorale,   Festa  Julii,  Die  xvi.      Migne,    torn.   Ixxxvi.  p.    1152. 
Parisiis,  1850, 


34  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAUSl. 

of  1504  they  were  seen  hovering  on  each  side  of  the 
Giralda,  and  preventing  the  thunderbolts  from  striking 
it,  as  is  depicted  in  Murillo's  painting  in  the  cathedral. 
Nay,  in  1843,  when  Espartero  bombarded  Seville, 
and  357  shells  and  600  cannon-balls  were  fired  into 
the  town  in  one  day,  Cardinal  Wiseman  tells  us  that 
men  who  were  watching  on  the  Giralda  declared,  that 
though  the  missiles  were  plainly  aimed  at  the  Giralda 
and  the  cathedral,  some  fell  short,  some  flew  beyond, 
some  fell  on  either  side,  but  none  touched  the  holy 
building,^  so  powerful  was  the  protection  afforded  by 
SS.  Justa  and  Rufina. 

If  Prudentius  had  heard  of  SS.  Justa  and  Rufina, 
he  could  hardly  have  failed  to  name  them  in  his  hymn 
on  the  eighteen  martyrs  of  Zaragoza,  for  he  there 
counts  up  the  martyrs  of  all  the  Spanish  towns,  and 
compares  them  with  those  of  Zaragoza.  He  knows 
of  martyrs  who  form  the  glory  of  Cordova,  Tarra- 
gona, Gerona,  Barcelona,  Alcala,  Tangier,  Zaragoza, 
but  none  are  named  as  coming  from  Seville.  Pro- 
bably the  story  is  the  product  of  the  ninth  century, 
when  it  was  the  glory  of  Spanish  Christians  to  be- 
come martyrs  by  making  such  attacks  upon  Islam  as 
SS.  Justa  and  Rufina  are  represented  as  making  on 
the  worshippers  of  Salambo.  We  may  say  once  for 
all,  that  Martyrologies  are  not  trustw(^-thy  evidence  of 
facts,  any  more  than  Liturgies  are  for  doctrine,  for 
both  one  and  the  other  were  altered  and  interpolated 
as  time  proceeded. 

There   are  two    more    martyrdoms    which    arc    re- 

1  Cardinal  Wiseman,  Abhandhingen  iiber  verschiedcuc  Gegenstdnde^, 
Regensberg,  1854,  quoted  by  Gnms,  iii.  7. 


ROMAN  SPAIN.  35 

corded  to  have  taken  place  before  the  outbreak  of  the 
great  Diocletian  persecution,  both  apparently  genuine. 
These  are  the  martyrdoms  of  Marcellus  and  Cassian 
of  Tangier  (a  town  which  at  the  time  was  regarded 
as  appertaining  to  Spain,  and  soon  afterwards  became 
the  chief  city  of  the  Provincia  Tingitana),  and  of 
Chelidonius  and  Emetherius  of  Calahorra.  The  Acts 
of  the  martyrdom  of  Marcellus  and  Cassian  are 
extant.-^ 

"  In  the  city  of  Tangier,  when  Fortunatus  was 
governor,  there  occurred  the  birthday  of  the  Emperor. 
While  all  were  feasting  and  offering  sacrifice,  Mar- 
cellus, one  of  the  centurions  of  Trajan's  legion,  count- 
ing the  festivities  profane,  cast  down  his  mihtary  belt 
before  the  colours  of  the  legion  and  testified  aloud, 
'  I  am  the  soldier  of  Christ  the  eternal  King.'  He 
also  threw  away  his  vine-staff  and  arms,  adding, 
'  From  this  time  forth  I  cease  to  fight  for  your 
Emperors,  and  I  scorn  to  worship  your  gods  of  wood 
and  stone,  which  are  deaf  and  dumb  images.  If  it 
be  a  condition  of  the  soldier's  life  that  he  must  offer 
sacrifice  to  the  gods  and  the  Emperors,  see,  I  toss 
away  my  staff  and  my  belt,  I  renounce  my  colours,  I 
refuse  to  serve.' 

"  The  soldiers  were  astounded  at  his  words.  They 
arrested  him  and  sent  word  to  Anastasius  Fortunatus, 
commander  of  the  legion,  who  ordered  him  to  be 
thrown  into  prison.  When  the  festival  was  over,  he 
took  his  seat  in  his  court  and  desired  Marcellus  the 
centurion   to    be   brought   in.      And   when   Marcellus, 

^  They  are  admitted  by  Ruinart  into  bis  Ac/a  Mariynim  sinccra^ 
p.  312. 

D 


36  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

who  was  one  of  the  centurions  of  Asta,  had  been 
brought  in,  Anastasius  Fortunatus,  the  commander, 
said  to  him,  '  What  do  you  mean  by  unbuckhng  your 
belt  and  throwing  it  and  your  staff  aside,  in  the  teeth 
of  mihtary  disciphne  ?  '  Marcellus  answered,  '  On 
August  21,  when  you  were  celebrating  the  Emperor's 
festival,  I  replied  aloud  in  the  presence  of  the  colours 
of  the  legion  that  I  was  a  Christian,  and  that  I  could 
not  serve  under  any  one  but  Jesus  Christ,  the  son  of 
the  Almighty  Father.'  Fortunatus  said,  '  I  cannot 
pass  over  your  audacity,  and  I  shall  therefore  refer 
the  case  to  the  Emperors  and  the  Caesar.  You  will 
be  sent  unhurt  to  my  lord  Aurelius  Agricolanus,  who 
is  occupying  the  post  of  Prcefedus  Prcetorioy  Csecilius 
being  engaged  in  magisterial  business.' 

''  On  October  30,  at  Tangier,  Marcellus,  one  of  the 
centurions  of  Asta,  was  brought  before  Agricolanus, 
and  the  officer  said,  '  Fortunatus,  the  commander,  has 
transmitted  to  you  Marcellus,  one  of  the  centurions, 
and  has  placed  him  in  your  charge.  I  have  a  letter 
on  the  subject,  which,  if  you  order  it,  I  will  read.' 
Agricolanus  said,  '  Let  it  be  read.'  The  officer  read, 
^  To  thee,  my  lord,  Fortunatus  sends  greeting,  &c.  The 
soldier  before  you  has  thrown  away  his  military  belt, 
and  has  declared  himself  a  Christian,  and  has  spoken 
many  blasphemous  words  against  the  gods  and  Caesar 
in  the  sight  of  all  the  people.  We  have  therefore 
sent  him  to  thee,  that  whatever  thy  excellency  deter- 
mines in  the  case,  thou  may'st  order  to  be  done.' 

"  So  when  the  letter  had  been  read,  Agricolanus 
said,  '  Did  you  say  all  that  is  attributed  to  you  in 
the  governor's    report  ?  '      Marcellus  replied,  '  I   did.' 


ROMAN  SPAIN.  37 

'Were  you  serving  as  an  ordinary  centurion  ?  '  Mar- 
cellus  replied,  '  I  was.'  Agricolanus  said,  *  What 
madness  caused  you  to  throw  aside  the  emblems  of 
your  military  profession  and  say  such  things  ? ' 
Marcellus  replied,  '  They  are  not  mad  who  fear  the 
Lord.'  Agricolanus  said,  '  Did  you  say  all  those 
things  which  are  contained  in  the  governor's  report  ? ' 
Marcellus  replied,  ^  I  did.'  '  Did  you  throw  down 
your  arms  ? '  Marcellus  replied,  '  I  did  ;  for  it  is  not 
becoming  in  a  Christian,  who  is  a  soldier  of  Christ 
the  Lord,  to  be  troubled  with  worldly  service.'  Agri- 
colanus said,  '  Marcellus'  deeds  are  of  such  a  nature 
that  discipline  must  be  vindicated.'  And  thereupon 
he  pronounced  sentence  that  Marcellus,  who  was 
serving  as  an  ordinary  centurion,  and  had  thrown 
away  his  military  emblems,  saying  that  they  polluted 
him,  and  had  also  used  other  words  full  of  madness, 
as  deposed  in  the  governor's  report,  should  be  put 
to  death  by  the  sword.  As  he  was  led  to  his  punish- 
ment he  said  to  Agricolanus,  '  God  bless  you  !  for 
this  is  the  way  in  which  a  martyr  ought  to  depart 
from  the  world.'  And  having  said  this,  he  was 
beheaded,  and  died  for  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  who  is  glorious  for  ever.      Amen." 

Cassian  was  amanuensis  or  reporter  in  the  court 
in  which  Marcellus  was  condemned,  and  on  the 
sentence  being  pronounced  he  threw  to  the  ground 
his  stylus  and  tablet  (his  pen  and  book)  with  an 
imprecation.  ''  The  court  was  amazed ;  Marcellus 
laughed ;  Aurelius  Auricularius  (he  is  so  named  in- 
stead of  Agricolanus)  leapt  quivering  from  his  chair, 
and   demanded  why  he   had   thrown   down  the  tablet 


38  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

with  a  curse.      The  most  blessed  Cassian  replied  that 

he  had  pronounced  an  unjust  sentence.      To  stop  his 

reproaches,  he  had  him  immediately  seized  and  dragged 

to   prison.      Now  the  most   blessed   martyr  Marcellus 

had  laughed  because  he  knew  through  the  Holy  Spirit 

and  rejoiced  that  Cassian  would  be  his  companion  in 

martyrdom.      The   day  came  when   the  most   blessed 

Marcellus  obtained   his   desire  amidst  the  excitement 

of  the  whole  city.      And  after  a  long  interval,  that  is, 

on  December  3rd,  the  venerable  Cassian  was  brought 

into   the    same   place   where    Marcellus'   hearing  took 

place,  and  giving  almost  the  same  answers,  received 

the  same  sentence  as  holy  Marcellus,  and  gained  the 

triumph  of  martyrdom   through  the  help  of  our  Lord 

Jesus  Christ,   to  whom    is   honour  and   glory,  virtue 

and  power,  for  ever  and  ever.      Amen." 

The    other  two    prse- Diocletian    martyrs,    Emethe- 

rius   and  Chelidonius,   were  brothers,  and   natives  of 

Calahorra.      Prudentius    commemorates    them    in    a 

special  hymn  and   alludes   to   them   in   his   hymn   on 

the    eighteen    martyrs    of  Zaragoza.      There    are    no 

Acts   of  their  martyrdom,  and  Prudentius   complains 

that  the    accounts    of    their    deaths    were    purposely 

destroyed    by   the   heathen,   lest  the   record   of  their 

endurance  should  encourage  others.^     All  that  he  can 

report  is,  that  at  the  moment  that  they  were  about  to 

be   beheaded,  the   ring  of  one  (emblem   of  his  faith) 

^   ' '  0  vetustatis  silentis  obsoleta  oblivio  ! 

Invidentur  ista  nobis,  fama  et  ipsa  extinguitur. 
Cartulas  blasphemus  olim  nam  satelles  abstulit ; 
Ne  tenacihus  libellis  erudita  ssecula 

Ordinem,  tempus,  modumque  passionis  proditum 
Dulcibus  Unguis  per  aures  posterorum  spargerent." 

— Peristephanon,  i.  73-78. 


ROMAN  SPAIN.  39 

and  the  handkerchief  of  the  other  were  carried  up 
to  the  sky  by  a  sudden  blast  of  wind,  and  in  the 
sight  of  all  disappeared  into  heaven,  leaving  a  track 
of  light  behind  them  caused  by  the  glitter  of  the  gold 
and  the  whiteness  of  the  fabric.  Miracles,  he  says, 
were  afterwards  wrought  at  their  tomb. 

We  now  come  to  the  last  and  greatest   persecution 
of  the  Christians. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE  DIOCLETIAN  PERSECUTION  IN  SPAIN. 

Diocletian  mounted  the  imperial  throne  in  the  year 
284  and  abdicated  in  305.  Had  he  died  or  resigned 
in  302,  he  would  have  come  down  to  us  as  a  merciful 
and  tolerant  prince,  favourable  to  Christianity.  His 
wife  and  daughter,  Prisca  and  Valeria,  if  not  Chris- 
tians, were  yet  so  much  influenced  by  Christianity 
as  to  absent  themselves  from  the  heathen  sacrifices.^ 
Lucian,  his  chief  chamberlain,  was  a  Christian,  and 
liberty  was  given  him  to  propagate  his  faith  in  the 
imperial  household.^  Dorotheus  and  Gorgonius,  the 
chief  eunuchs,  were  excused  from  attendance  on 
heathen  rites  on  the  score  of  their  being  Christians.^ 
Personally  the  Emperor  was  a  religious  man,  accord- 
ing to  the  form  of  the  religion  in  which  he  had  been 
brought  up,  and  he  was  constitutionally  averse  from 
bloodshed.  Diocletian  may  be  added  to  Juvenal's 
sad  catalogue  of  the  men  that  lived  too  long.* 

Two  years  after  his  own  election,  Diocletian  ap- 
pointed Maximian  as  his  colleague,  and  gave  him  the 
command  of  the  West.  In  293  he  completed  his 
system  of  government  by  the  appointment  of  Constan- 

1  Lactantius,  Ds  Morte  Persecutontm^  c.  15. 

2  Letter  of  Theonas,  in  T>'  Achary's  Spicilegiinn,  iii.  297. 
8  Eusebius,  Historia  Ecclesiastka^  viii.  I. 

*  Sat.  X.  189-287. 


THE  DIOCLETIAN  PERSECUTION  IN  SPAIN.    41 

tins  Chlorus,  and  Galerius  as  Caesars,  Constantius 
marrying  Maximian's  stepdaughter  Theodora,  and 
Galerius  Diocletian's  daughter  Valeria.  Valeria  was, 
as  we  have  seen,  almost  a  Christian  ;  Galerius'  mother, 
on  the  contrary,  was  a  bigoted  partisan  of  the  old 
faith.  The  rivalry  and  mutual  dislike  of  the  two 
women  may  have  hurried  on  the  catastrophe  which 
drowned  the  world  in  Christian  blood.  But  there 
were  stronger  causes  at  work  than  the  tempers  and 
tongues  of  women.  Christians  and  heathens  were 
now  facing  each  other,  the  Christians  not  yet  equal  in 
numbers  to  the  opposite  host,  but  full  of  the  hope 
and  vigour  of  youth,  while  the  heathens  were  con- 
scious that  the  time  was  come  when  they  must  either 
crush  Christianity  while  still  they  could  do  so,  or 
be  crushed  by  it  before  many  years  had  passed. 
Galerius  was  the  representative  of  the  old  Pagan 
party.  His  mother  had  brought  him  up  as  a  fana- 
tical adherent  of  the  dying  Phrygian  superstitions, 
and  he  was  resolved  that  the  old  faith  of  the  Roman 
Empire  should  be  preserved  by  the  annihilation  of  its 
aggressive  rival.  In  the  autumn  of  302,  Galerius 
betook  himself  to  Nicomedia  for  the  purpose  of  con- 
sulting with  Diocletian,  and  urging  him  to  take 
measures  against  the  Christians.  Already  Diocletian 
was  in  a  state  of  alarm  and  irritation.  The  Harus- 
pices  had  declared  that  the  gods  vouchsafed  no  omens 
on  account  of  the  presence  of  Christians  at  the  sacri- 
fices. All  the  officials  about  his  person  were  com- 
manded by  the  indignant  Emperor  to  sacrifice,  or  to 
submit  to  the  penalty  of  scourging.  Orders  were 
issued  that  soldiers  who  would  not  sacrifice  should 


42  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

be  dismissed   from    the   service.      The    oracle   of  the 
Milesian  Apollo  at    Branchidae   being   consulted,   de- 
clared itself  incapable  of  answering  as  long  as  Chris- 
tians were  allowed  to  live  in  peace.      Galerius  appa- 
rently urged  the  impossibility  of  maintaining  military 
discipline   if  soldiers   were    admitted    into   the   army 
whose  principles  led   them   to  act  like  the   centurion 
Marcellus  of  Tangier.      Diocletian  was  not  difficult  to 
persuade,  but  he  shrank   from   authorising  the  shed- 
ding of  blood.      On   February  24,  a.d.  303,   his  first 
edict    was    issued,    commanding    the     demolition    of 
sacred  buildings,  the  burning  of  the  sacred  books,  the 
degradation   and   outlawry  of  Christian   officials,  and 
the  reduction  of  ordinary  Christians  to   the  condition 
of  slaves.     Shortly  after   this  edict  had  been  issued  a 
fire  took   place  in   the   imperial   palace.     It  was  attri- 
buted   to    the   revengeful    feelings   of    the    Christian 
officers  and  members  of  the  household.      They  were 
tortured,  but   no  proof  of  their  guilt  was   found.      It 
was   believed   by  Christians   to  have   been   the  act  of 
Galerius'   party  for  the  purpose  of  alarming  the  mind 
of    Diocletian.       In    a    fortnight's    time    another    fire 
occurred,  and   Galerius  persuaded  the  Emperor  that  it 
was   the  result  of  a  Christian   plot.     Diocletian,  in  a 
rage  produced   by  terror,  put   to   death   his   Christian 
eunuchs,  compelled   his   wife  and   daughter   to    sacri- 
fice,  and   signed   a    second   edict   which   ordered    the 
imprisonment  of  the  entire   Christian   clergy.      Still, 
however,   he  would   give  no  sanction   for  bloodshed. 
A  third   edict   followed,  and  in   304   the   fourth  edict 
was   promulgated,    constituting   death  as    the  penalty 
of  the    profession    of  Christianity    in    all    cases.     In 


THE  DIOCLETIAN  PERSECUTION  IN  SPAIN.    43 

305  Diocletian  abdicated,  and  with  him  his  colleague 
Maximian.  Constantiiis  and  Galerius  thus  became 
the  two  Augusti,  and  Constantius'  death  in  the  fol- 
lowing year  left  Galerius  supreme.  The  Eastern 
world  was  now  given  up  to  the  slaughter  of  Chris- 
tians. In  308  a  new  edict  was  issued,  more  savage 
than  the  last,  and  the  persecution  raged  till  the  year 
311,  when  Galerius  died,  having  just  before  his  de- 
cease published  an  edict  of  toleration  in  conjunction 
with  Constantine  and  Licinius. 

The  Western  province  of  the  empire  did  not  suffer 
the  barbarities  which  the  East  underwent.  When  the 
two  Augusti  had  consented  to  the  policy  of  perse- 
cution, it  was  necessary  for  the  two  Caesars  to  give 
their  consent  to  it,  whatever  their  private  sentiments 
might  be.  Galerius,  the  Eastern  Caesar,  was  only 
too  happy  to  take  advantage  of  the  hcense  allowed  to 
him.  Constantius  Chlorus,  the  Caesar  of  the  West, 
whose  immediate  sphere  of  jurisdiction  was  Gaul, 
Spain,  and  Britain,  had  never  been  hostile  to  Chris- 
tianity, and  disapproving,  while  unable  to  resist, 
Diocletian's  edict,  he  did  no  more  than  close  a  few 
churches.  Nevertheless,  he  was  not  able  to  restrain 
the  violence  of  Dacian,  who  was  Prseses  of  Spain 
under  him.  Dacian's  sternness  caused  the  persecu- 
tion to  be  severely  felt  in  the  Peninsula,  and  until 
Constantius  succeeded  Diocletian  and  Maximian  in 
the  year  305  as  Augustus,  he  did  not  think  it 
prudent  to  supersede  him  in  his  office.  We  learn 
from  Prudentius  the  number  of  Spanish  martyrs  that 
perished  in  the  Diocletian  persecution.  Zaragoza 
supplied  nineteen,  almost  as  many,  says   Prudentius, 


44  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

as  Rome  or  Carthage ;  Cordova,  five ;  Alcala,  two ; 
Gerona,  one  ;  Barcelona,  one ;  Saguntum,  one  ; 
Merida,  one — in  all,  thirty,  besides  the  three  mar- 
tyrs of  Tarragona,  two  of  Calahorra,  and  two  of 
Tangier,  whose  deaths  occurred  a  few  years  previously. 
Eighteen  of  the  Zaragoza  martyrs  appear  to  have  been 
put  to  death  together.  Their  names  are  Optatus, 
Lupercus,  Successus,  Martial,  Urban,  Julia,  Quintilian, 
PubUcus,  Fronto,  Felix,  Cecilian,  Euvantius,  Primitivus, 
Apodemius,  and  four  others  called  Saturninus.  Of 
these  eighteen  we  know  nothing  more.  One  of  them 
was  a  woman.  The  other  martyr  of  Zaragoza  was 
also  a  woman,  Encrate,  whose  Greek  name,  'Ey/cioar^?, 
has  been  corrupted  into  Engracias.  Of  her  Pruden- 
tius  uses  an  expression  too  applicable  to  many  of 
the  subsequent  Spanish  martyrs  in  a  harsher  sense 
than  that  in  which  the  poet  applied  it  to  Encrate — 
vioknta  virgo.  "  Thou  didst  shame  the  spirit  of  the 
maddened  world,  a  violent  girl,"  sings  Prudentius. 
Probably,  in  selecting  the  epithet,  he  was  referring 
to  Matt.  xi.  12,  "The  kingdom  of  God  suffereth 
violence,  and  the  violent  take  it  by  force,"  and  meant 
no  more  than  to  praise  her  bravery  and  firmness  ; 
but,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter,  there  were  too  many 
"  violent  girls,"  and  boys,  and  men,  in  Spain,  who 
brought  death  upon  themselves  by  a  wilful  determina- 
tion to  be  martyrs.  We  may  note  in  this  a  charac- 
teristic of  the  Spanish  temperament  which  appeared 
both  in  the  heathen  and  in  the  Mohammedan  perse- 
cutions. Encrate  courageously  suffered  while  the 
flesh  was  torn  from  her  sides,  and  her  bosom  cut  off, 
and  her  breast  pierced,  after  which  she  was  thrown 


THE  DIOCLETIAN  PERSECUTION  IN  SPAIN.     45 

into  a  dungeon  to  die.  Prudentius  rightly  says  that 
"  though  the  envious  sword  of  the  persecutor  refused 
to  inflict  death,  the  torments  that  she  underwent  gave 
her  the  martyr's  crown."  ^ 

The  five  martyrs  of  Cordova  are  Acisclus,  Zoellus, 
and  three  others  whom  Prudentius  speaks  of  under 
the  name  of  the  three  crowns.  Their  names  were 
Faustus,  Januarius,  and  Martial.  They  are  described 
as  meeting  the  magistrate  Eugenius  on  his  arrival  at 
Cordova  and  declaring  themselves  Christians.  Euge- 
nius first  placed  Faustus  on  the  rack  and  tried  per- 
suasion on  Martial.  Martial  replied  that  there  was 
no  God  but  one,  and  He  would  punish  Eugenius  for 
his  wicked  acts.  Eugenius  placed  him  on  the  rack 
also,  and  desired  that  they  should  be  tortured  until 
they  worshipped  the  gods,  as  the  Emperor  had 
ordered.  Faustus  replied  that  Eugenius  had  no  gods 
to  worship  except  Satan,  who  was  his  father.  Euge- 
nius ordered  his  nose  and  ears  to  be  cut  off,  and  his 
eyebrows  and  upper  teeth  to  be  pulled  out.  Then  he 
turned  to  Januarius  and  in  vain  urged  him  to  avoid 
such  torments.  Failing  with  him,  he  turned  once 
more  to  Martial,  with  no  effect  beyond  making  him 
confess  his  faith  aloud.  Eugenius  ordered  them  to 
be  burnt,  and  they  died  exhorting  the  bystanders  not 
to  worship  the  work  of  men's  hands,  wood  and  stone, 
gold  and  silver,  but  to  confess  Christ  Jesus  and  to 
praise  God  every  day. 

Justus  and  Pastor  are  the  martyrs  of  Complutum 
or  Alcala.  In  later  times  they  were  believed  to  be 
two   schoolboys,    who,   as   soon    as    they    heard    that 

^  Peristeph.  vii.  133. 


46  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

Dacian  had  entered  the  town,  ran  away  from  school, 
presented  themselves  before  him,  and  declared  them- 
selves to  be  Christians,  whom  Dacian,  when  he  found 
that  lighter  measures  would  not  serve,  ordered  to  be 
beheaded.  Paulinus  of  Nola,  in  the  year  391,  says 
that  he  chose  the  place  for  his  child's  grave  at  Com- 
plutum  near  the  graves  of  "  the  martyrs,"  by  which 
term  he  is  supposed  to  mean  Justus  and  Pastor.  The 
relics  of  Justus  and  Pastor  were  taken  to  Bordeaux, 
and  thence  to  the  neighbourhood  of  Huesca,  where 
they  remained  eight  hundred  years,  when  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Zaragoza  sent  two  monks  to  steal  them 
for  a  church  which  he  had  just  built  at  Alcala.  The 
monks  succeeded  in  their  attempt,  but  were  over- 
taken on  their  way  back  and  the  rehcs\vere  recovered. 
When  Ximenes  founded  the  University  of  Alcala,  he 
appointed  the  incumbent  of  the  Church  of  SS.  Justus 
and  Pastor  as  its  first  chancellor,  and  sent  to  Zara- 
goza for  the  relics,  but  was  not  able  to  obtain  them. 
Alcala  had  to  content  itself  with  their  cenotaph 
and  the  stone  on  which  they  had  been  beheaded, 
till  Philip  II.,  in  1568,  made  apphcation  to  Pope 
Pius  V.  to  order  the  Bishop  of  Huesca  to  send  a 
part  of  them  to  Alcala,  which  was  done  in  the  same 
year. 

The  Gerona  martyr  was  Felix  ;  Barcelona  supplied 
Cucufat.  At  Merida,  which  Prudentius  calls  the  head 
of  the  Lusitanian  towns,  Eulalia  suffered.  To  her 
Prudentius  has  devoted  a  hymn  of  215  verses.  She 
was  a  girl  of  thirteen  years  of  age,  living  at  some 
distance  from  the  town  of  Merida,  and  her  parents, 
knowing  her  temperament,  locked  her  up  to  prevent 


THE  DIOCLETIAN  PERSECUTION  IN  SPAIN,     47 

her  from  demanding  martyrdom.  At  night  she  con- 
trived to  open  the  door,  and,  in  spite  of  the  darkness, 
ran  at  full  speed  to  Merida.  She  arrived  there  in 
the  early  morning,  and  straightway  entered  the  judg- 
ment-hall crying  out,  "  Wretched  men,  are  ye  seeking 
for  Christians  ?  I  am  one,  and  I  hate  your  devilish 
rites ;  I  trample  your  idols  under  my  feet,  and  confess 
God  in  my  heart  and  with  my  mouth.  Isis,  Apollo, 
and  Venus  are  nothing  ;  Maximian  himself  is  nothing. 
They  are  nothing  because  they  are  made  with  hands ; 
he  is  nothing  because  he  worships  things  made 
with  hands.  Both  are  nonentities,  both  are  nothing. 
Maximian  is  the  lord  of  wealth  and  the  slave  of 
stones.  Let  him  give  his  own  life  to  his  gods, — 
why  should  he  terrify  noble  hearts  ?  This  good 
chief,  this  noble  judge,  feeds  on  the  blood  of  the 
innocent  !  Gloating  over  the  bodies  of  good  men, 
he  tears  out  their  entrails  and  rejoices  to  torture  the 
faithful.  Come,  then,  tormentor,  with  fire  and  knife, 
cut  in  pieces  my  limbs,  made  of  the  dust  of  the 
ground.  It  is  easy  to  destroy  a  frail  thing,  but  the 
soul  within  cannot  be  touched  by  the  excruciating 
pain."  The  praetor  strove  to  soothe  her,  reminded 
her  of  the  sorrow  which  would  fall  upon  her  family 
if  she  was  cut  off  in  her  tender  age  and  before  mar- 
riage ;  pointed  out  to  her  the  terrible  instruments  of 
torture, — she  would  be  beheaded,  or  thrown  to  the 
wild  beasts,  or  burnt  alive.  If  she  would  only  cast 
a  little  salt  and  offer  a  little  incense  with  the  tips  of 
her  fingers,  she  would  be  saved.  Eulalia  made  no 
reply  beyond  spitting  in  the  praetor's  face,  throwing 
down    the  images,   and    trampling  on   the   salt   cake 


48  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

which  she  was  invited  to  offer.  The  torturers  seized 
her,  and  tore  her  breast  and  side  with  the  iron 
claw,  while  Eulalia  triumphantly  counted  the  wounds. 
''Thou,  my  Lord,  shalt  be  written  in  my  flesh!" 
thus  she  cried  joyously  and  fearlessly  without  a  tear 
or  a  groan.  ^'  What  a  pleasure  is  it  to  look  upon 
these  letters  which  are  the  marks  of  Thy  victory, 
O  Christ  !  Thy  sacred  name  is  inscribed  on  me  by 
the  crimson  of  my  blood."  The  torturers  set  burn- 
ing lamps  against  her  side.  The  fire  caught  her 
hair  as  it  hung  down  her  shoulders  and  ran  up  to 
her  head  and  face,  and  she  tried  to  draw  it  into  her 
mouth.  Then  Eulalia's  spirit,  milk-white,  swift,  in- 
nocent, was  seen  to  come  from  her  mouth  in  the  form 
of  a  dove,  whiter  than  snow,  and  to  seek  the  stars. 
Her  head  fell  as  her  life  thus  departed,  the  fiery  pile 
died  down,  peace  came  to  her  worn  limbs,  a  rejoicing 
breeze  was  heard  in  the  sky,  and  the  white  bird 
passed  into  the  lofty  heavens.  The  executioner  him- 
self plainly  saw  it  come  from  the  girl's  mouth  ; 
astounded  and  terrified,  he  leapt  up  and  fled  from 
what  he  had  done,  and  even  the  lictor  took  to  flight. 
A  wintry  storm  covered  the  whole  forum  with  snow, 
and  swathed  the  limbs  of  Eulalia  as  they  lay  under 
the  cold  sky  in  place  of  a  white  pall. 

The  spirit  shown  by  Eulalia  was  so  entirely  in 
accordance  with  the  Spanish  character,  that  the  other 
provinces  grudged  Lusitania  the  sole  possession  of 
her.  Barcelona  claimed  to  have  an  Eulalia  too,  whose 
history  is  the  same  as  that  of  Eulalia  of  Merida 
except  in  a  few  particulars  of  no  importance  ;  it  built 
churches  in   her  honour  and  declared   her  patroness 


THE  DIOCLETIAN  PERSECUTION  IN  SPAIN.     49 

of  the  city.      The  martyrologists   have  for  the   most 
part  admitted  two  Eulalias  into  their  catalogues.^ 

The  most  famous  of  the  Diocletian  martyrs  in 
Spain  was  Vincent,  who  was  a  native  of  Zaragoza, 
and  put  to  death  at  Saguntum.  Prudentius  claims 
him  as  one  of  the  glories  of  Zaragoza  because  he  had 
spent  his  childhood  there,  and  had  been  taught  by  the 
example  of  the  eighteen  martyrs  of  Zaragoza.  He 
gives  the  following  description  of  the  scene  between 
Vincent  and  the  Roman  magistrate.  The  magistrate 
is  introduced  saying,  "  The  mighty  ruler  of  the  world 
who  holds  the  Roman  sceptre  has  commanded  every- 
thing to  submit  to  the  ancient  worship  of  the  gods. 
You  Nazarenes,  do  your  part ;  despise  your  ignorant 
rites  and  offer  incense  and  sacrifice  to  these  images 
which  the  prince  worships."  Vincentius  answers, 
"  You  may  have  those  images  for  your  gods, — -you 
may  worship  stocks  and  stones, — you  may  be  the 
pontiff  of  dead  gods,  being  yourself  dead.  We, 
Dacian,  will  acknowledge  the  Father,  the  Author  of 
light,  and  His  Son  Christ,  who  is  the  only  and  true 
God."  Dacian  replies,  "  Darest  thou,  unblest  one, 
to  attack  the  rights  of  the  gods  and  Emperors  with 
angry  words  like  these  ?  Those  rights  are  over  all 
things  sacred  and  secular ;  the  whole  human  race 
acknowledges  them.  Are  you  not  moved  by  the 
danger  impending  over  your  young  life  ?  Take  this 
as  my  decree ;  either  you  must  pray  and  offer  sacrifice 
or  incense,   or  you   must   pay  the  penalty  with  your 

1  The  Acts  of  the  martyrdom  of  S.  Eulalia  of  Barcelona,  "taken 
from  a  Gothic  codex  of  the  monastery  of  Silo,"  are  given  by  Florez, 
vol.  xxix.  p.  371  ;  and  her  Life,  written  in  the  twelfth  century,  ibid., 
P-  375- 


50  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

blood."  Vincent  answered,  "  Use  all  the  power  and 
force  you  have.  I  resist  3^011  openly.  Hear  what  I 
say.  We  confess  Christ  and  God  the  Father ;  we  are 
His  servants  and  witnesses;  tear  that  faith  out  of  our 
hearts  if  you  can  ;  torture,  the  prison,  the  iron  claw, 
the  red-hot  sheets  of  iron,  and  the  extreme  penalty  of 
death  is  play  to  Christians.  Oh,  the  emptiness  of 
your  vain  efforts,  and  the  inefhcacy  of  the  imperial 
decree  !  You  command  the  worship  of  deities  suit- 
able to  your  own  perceptions,  made  by  the  hand  of 
the  workman  or  moulded  by  the  force  of  bellows, 
which  have  not  voice  to  speak  nor  feet  to  walk,  un- 
moving,  blind,  dumb  ;  for  them  spring  up  magnificent 
temples  of  splendid  marble, — for  them  the  lowing 
herds  fall  in  sacrifice.  Evil  spirits  are  the  authors  of 
your  crimes,  who  are  aiming  at  your  destruction, 
vagabonds  of  the  air,  powerless,  base.  It  is  they 
that  stir  you  unconsciously  to  yourselves,  and  drive 
you  into  every  wickedness,  making  you  expel  the 
righteous  and  persecute  the  pious.  They  know  and 
feel  that  Christ  lives  and  reigns,  and  that  soon  His 
tremendous  sentence  will  be  pronounced  upon  the 
wicked.  Your  gods,  who  are  but  demons,  cry  out 
and  confess  the  truth,  expelled  from  the  bodies  of  the 
possessed  by  the  virtue  and  name  of  Christ."  Dacian 
cried  out,  "  Close  his  mouth  ;  let  not  the  villain  utter 
anything  more.  I  will  let  the  insolent  fellow  feel  the 
Praetor's  power.  He  shall  not  mock  our  gods  with 
impunity.  Shalt  thou  be  allowed,  insolent  man,  to 
trample  on  the  sacred  rights  of  the  capital,  which 
all  others  adore  ?  Shalt  thou  be  allowed  to  insult 
Rome,  the  Senate,  and  the  Emperor  ?     Bind  his  hands 


THE  DIOCLETIAN  PERSECUTION  IN  SPAIN.     51 

behind  him  ;  stretch  him  on  the  rack  till  his  joints 
crack;  then  tear  open  his  body  till  the  wounds  gape." 
The  servant  of  God  laughed  at  this,  and  chid  their 
bloody  hands  for  not  fixing  the  claw  deeper  into  his 
flesh.  The  strong  men  grew  weary  of  mutilating 
him,  and  the  muscles  of  their  arms  grew  tired.  He 
was  more  and  more  joyful,  and  his  calm  forehead 
shone  free  from  any  shadow,  seeing  Thee,  O  Christ, 
present.  ^*  What  face  is  that  ?  "  cried  Dacian,  beside 
himself  with  rage.  ''  He  is  rejoicing,  smiling,  asking 
for  more.  The  tortured  is  superior  to  the  torturer. 
The  torturer's  force  is  of  no  avail  here ;  hold  your 
hands  for  awhile."  Vincent  returned,  ^*  Do  you  see 
the  power  of  your  dogs  failing  ?  Show  them  how 
to  penetrate  deeper — nay,  yourself  thrust  in  your  hand 
and  drink  the  warm  blood.  You  are  mistaken,  bloody 
man,  if  you  think  that  you  are  punishing  me  when 
you  do  to  death  my  limbs,  which  are  but  mortal. 
There  is  a  second  man  within,  to  whom  no  one  can 
offer  violence,  free,  calm,  untouched,  delivered  from 
all  pain.  That  which  you  are  seeking  to  destroy 
with  so  great  fury  is  but  an  earthenware  vessel 
which  can  be  broken  in  any  way.  You  may  try  as 
you  will  to  mutilate  and  torture  him  who  lives  within, 
and  who  tramples  on  thy  madness,  tyrant  !  Attack 
him,  you  will  find  him  unconquered,  unconquerable, 
unsubdued  by  storms,  subject  to  none  but  God." 
The  Praetor  with  serpent's  guile  hissed  the  following 
words,  "  If  your  obstinacy  is  too  great  to  touch  our 
altar  with  your  hand,  give  up  the  concealed  papers 
and  books  to  be  burnt  with  fire."  The  martyr  repHecl, 
"  Thou    shalt   thyself    burn   in   that   fire   with    which 


52  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

you  threaten  our  religious  books.      The  sword  of  the 
heavenly   host    shall   protect    the   volumes,    and    thy 
poisonous  tongue  shall  be  burnt  with  lightning.     The 
ashes  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  are  eternal  witnesses 
of  destruction,  and  they  are  an  example  to  thee,  thou 
serpent,  who   will   soon   be  involved   in   sulphur  and 
pitch  in  the  lowest   hell."      Dacian   ordered   that   he 
should  be   tortured   with   the  hot  iron   bed  and  fire. 
Vincent  hurried  to  the  spot  even  before  the  torturers. 
He  mounted  unfrightened  the    fiery  pile,   as  though 
he  were  stepping  up  to  a  lofty  seat,   conscious  that 
his  crown  was  now  gained.      He  remained  unmoved 
among  his  torments,  as   though  feeling  no  pain,  and 
as    his  hands  were    chained,   he    lifted  his    eyes    to 
heaven.      After    this   he   was   thrust    into    a   gloomy 
dungeon,  in  which  no  hght  entered,  and  his  feet  were 
fixed    in    the    stocks,   while    sharp   potsherds    were 
strewn  under  his  back.      But  Christ  lit  up  the  dark- 
ness of  the  prison   with   bright    light,    and   the   pot- 
sherds were  clothed  with  soft  flowers,  and  the  odour 
of  nectar    filled    the    prison,   and    angels  came  and 
conversed   with   him.      The  jailer  bore    news  of  the 
miracle  to  the   Praetor,  and  declared   himself  a  Chris- 
tian.      Dacian   desired    that   the    martyr    should     be 
carried   from   the  dungeon    and    placed   upon  a   bed, 
and  there  he  died,  if  it  is   to  be  accounted  death,  and 
mounted   straightway  to  heaven    by  the  path   which 
blessed  Abel  trod  when  slain  by  his  impious  brother ; 
and  the  white-robed  choirs  of  saints   surrounded  him 
as  he  went  on  either  side,  and  John  Baptist,  who  had 
himself  been  delivered  from  a  like  dungeon,  beckoned 
him  onwards.      Dacian  resolved  to  throw  his  body  to 


THE  DIOCLETIAN  PERSECUTION  IN  SPAIN.     53 

the  wild  beasts  and  dogs,  but  no  bird  nor  beast  dared 
to  defile  it  by  their  touch,  for  a  raven,  once  sent  to 
Elijah,  sat  ever  watching,  and  by  the  sound  of  its 
wings  drove  away  a  huge  wolf,  beating  him  on  his 
eyes  with  his  feathers.  ''  I  shall  throw  his  corpse," 
said  Dacian,  ''  into  the  sea,  for  the  mad  waves  have 
no  mercy,  and  it  shall  be  the  food  of  fishes  or 
dashed  against  a  rock."  Eumorphius,  a  violent  and 
fierce  barbarian,  fastened  a  millstone  to  the  body, 
and  carrying  it  far  from  land,  sank  it  in  the  sea. 
But  the  great  stone  swam,  as  if  it  had  been  foam, 
till  it  gently  moved  back  again  to  the  land,  and  they 
could  not  overtake  it,  though  they  tried.  His  soul 
was  carried  up  to  the  abode  of  God,  and  took  its 
place  by  the  Maccabee  brethren  and  Isaiah,  who  was 
sawn  in  sunder.-^ 

Vincent  is  the  most  famous  martyr  that  Spain 
produced.  S.  Augustine  says,  ''  What  country,  what 
province  to  which  the  Roman  Empire  and  the  Chris- 
tian name  has  been  extended,  does   not  now  rejoice 

^  Such  is  the  account  given  by  Prudentius,  and  it  is  probable  that 
the  other  report  of  the  martyrdom  of  Vincent  which  has  come  down 
to  us,  and  is  called  the  "Passion  of  S.  Vincent,"  was  founded  on 
Prudentius'  poem.  The  authorised  report  of  the  martyr's  death  is 
said  to  have  been  purposely  destroyed  by  Dacian,  and  its  place  is  sup- 
plied by  this  history,  written  by  an  unknown  Christian.  That  the 
story  of  his  death  was  committed  to  writing  and  read  in  Christian 
congregations  is  testified  by  S.  Augustine,  if  the  Sermons  274-277 
attributed  to  him  are  genuine.  Some  of  the  words  used  in  the 
"  Passio  "  are  the  same  as  those  employed  by  Prudentius,  and  there  is 
no  material  difference  in  the  story.  The  various  tortures,  the  fire,  the 
dungeon,  the  angels'  presence,  the  conversion  of  the  jailer,  the  death 
on  his  own  bed,  the  raven  that  protected  his  body  from  the  wolf,  the 
vain  attempt  to  sink  the  body  in  the  sea  and  its  return  to  land,  make 
the  chief  features  of  both  accounts.  It  is  more  probable  that  the  poem 
is  the  original  source  of  the  "Passio"  than  that  the  "Passio"  was 
versified  by  Prudentius, 


54  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

to  celebrate  the  festival  of  S.  Vincent  ?  "  ^  Paulinus  of 
Nola  and  Gregory  of  Tours  also  commemorate  him. 
He  is  sometimes  confounded  with  other  Vincents, 
real  and  apocryphal,  but  his  fame  surpassed  theirs, 
and  that  of  any  other  Spanish  martyrs.  Four  French 
cathedrals  are  dedicated  to  him,  and  the  monastery 
of  S.  Germain  des  Pres  accepted  him  as  its  patron. 

Besides  the  actual  martyrs,  there  were  confessors, 
of  whom  Prudentius  names  Caius  and  Crementius  of 
Zaragoza  and  Bishop  Valerius.  Valerius  we  shall 
find  returning  from  banishment  on  the  cessation  of 
the  persecution,  and  making  one  of  the  Fathers  at 
the  Council  of  Elvira.  A  still  greater  man  bore 
witness  to  Christ  as  a  confessor  in  this  persecution, 
namely,  Hosius,  Bishop  of  Cordova.  The  nature  and 
degree  of  his  suffering  we  do  not  know ;  he  merely 
states  the  fact  of  his  confessorship.  Happily  for  the 
Church,  he  was  reserved  to  influence  the  counsels  of 
Constantine,  and  to  preside  at  the  great  Council  of 
Nicsea. 

^  Sermon  276. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  COUNCIL  OF  ELVIRA. 

On  the  cessation  of  persecution,  the  first  act  of  the 
Spanish  Church  was  to  meet  together  in  the  Synod 
of  Elvira,  held  in  the  year  305,  or  early  in  the  year 
306.  Elvira  was  in  the  close  neighbourhood  of  Gra- 
nada, and  is  represented  by  that  city  more  than  by 
any  other  in  the  present  day.  It  was  known  also 
under  the  name  of  Eliberis  or  Illiberis.  Nineteen 
Bishops  were  present,  who  signed  in  the  following 
order : — Felix  of  Guadix,  Sinagius  of  Epagra,  Secun- 
dinus  of  Castulo,  Pardus  of  Mentesa,  Flavian  of 
Elvira,  Cantonius  of  Urci,  Tiberius  of  Merida,  Vale- 
rius of  Zaragoza,  Decentius  of  Leon,  Melantius  of 
Toledo,  Januarius  of  Fibularia,  Vincent  of  Ossonoba, 
Quintianus  of  Elbora  (probably  Talavera,  but  per- 
haps Ebora),  Successus  of  Lorca,  Eutychian  of  Baza, 
and  Patricius  of  Malaga.  Twenty-four  priests  also 
attended  the  Synod,  and  sat  with  the  bishops.  This 
list  of  prelates  teaches  us  a  great  deal  about  the 
Spanish  Church.  The  president  is  the  Bishop  of 
Guadix,  a  town  which  never  had  metropolitan  dig- 
nity, either  civilly  or  ecclesiastically.  No  doubt  Felix 
held  the  post  of  premier  bishop  in  consequence  of 
his  age,  for  the  metropolitan  system  had  not  yet  been 
developed   in   Spain   any    more   than    in   Africa,    and 


56  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

(as  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of  the  United 
States  at  the  present  time)  the  honorary  primacy 
passed  from  See  to  See  according  to  the  age  of  the 
occupant.  In  the  fifty-eighth  canon  of  the  Council 
mention  is  made  of  the  Prima  Cathedra  Episcopatus. 
This  expression  is  equivalent  to  Prima  Sedes,  which 
was  the  name  given  to  whatever  See  was  occupied 
by  the  oldest  bishop  in  the  province  or  country.  It 
was  shortly  after  this  time  that  Constantine  divided 
Spain  into  six  or  seven  civil  provinces,  which  led 
to  an  analogous  division  of  the  Church  and  a  more 
strict  metropolitan  organisation.  Hosius,  who  may 
have  been  vice-president  of  the  Synod,  as  he  signs 
next  to  Felix,  probably  held  his  pre-eminence  rather 
from  his  personal  character  than  in  consequence  of 
the  greatness  of  his  See,  though  that  See  was  the 
famous  town  of  Cordova ;  for  Hosius,  who  was  at 
this  time  in  the  vigour  of  his  early  manhood,  was 
already  the  greatest  Bishop  of  the  Western  Church, 
and  continued  to  be  so  for  more  than  half  a  century. 
That  the  Bishop  of  Toledo  should  subscribe  his  name 
so  low  down  in  the  Episcopal  list  shows  how  far 
that  See  was  from  having  yet  attained  to  the  supe-^ 
riority  which  it  afterwards  enjoyed.  The  majority  of 
the  Bishops  appear  to  have  belonged  to  Andalusia, 
but  the  presence  of  the  Bishops  of  Merida,  Leon, 
and  other  northern  cities  show  that  the  Synod  is  to 
be  regarded  rather  as  a  national  than  a  provincial 
council.  Elvira  was  probably  chosen  for  the  place 
in  which  it  was  held  owing  to  the  convenience  of  its 
situation. 

The  canons  of  the  Council  are  not  such  as,  under 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  ELVIRA.  57 

other  circumstances,  would  have  been  passed  by  a 
convocation  of  bishops  and  clergy  in  the  present  day. 
This  is  only  saying  that  the  problems  which  the 
Church  of  Christ ,  had  to  face  in  the  fourth  century 
are  different  from  those  with  which  it  must  grapple 
in  the  nineteenth  century,  and  that  the  state  of  society 
then  was  not  what  it  is  now.  In  Spain  the  Church 
found  herself,  at  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century, 
in  a  country  abounding  still  with  heathen  inhabitants, 
where  the  Government  recognised  Paganism  as  the 
state  religion.  Furthermore,  she  found  that  the 
province  had  absorbed  into  itself  the  vices  of  the 
decaying  civilisation  of  Rome.  Spain  was  Romanised 
through  and  through,  except  in  its  mountain  fast- 
nesses, but  the  Romanising,  while  it  had  brought 
with  it  material  prosperity  and  comforts,  had  at  the 
same  time  introduced  a  shameless  immoralit}'  in  regard 
to  the  relations  of  the  sexes,  by  which  the  lives  of 
nominal  Christians,  as  well  as  of  the  heathen,  were 
affected.  Further  still,  she  found  that  her  own 
discipline  was  not  yet  settled  and  organised,  and  that 
she  had  not  a  sufficiently  effective  moral  system 
wherewith  to  combat  the  immorality  surrounding  her. 
Under  these  circumstances  the  Bishops  lead  off  with 
a  series  of  canons  condemnatory  of  idolatry  and 
of  concession  to  heathendom.  Thirteen  canons  in 
all  are  directed  against  this  evil,  and  two  against 
Judaising.  As  to  the  method  of  dealing  with  carnal 
sins,  they  agreed  on  twenty-three  rules  or  canons, 
twelve  of  them  having  to  do  with  marriage,  which 
Christianity  had  to  purify  and  sanctify.  Other  im- 
moralities, such  as  false  witness,  sorcery,  and  usury, 


SS  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  IN  SPAIN. 

are  dealt  with  in  six  canons.  The  remaining  canons, 
with  the  exception  of  two  to  which  we  shall  recur, 
are  framed  with  a  view  of  strengthening  and  organis- 
ing the  discipline  of  the  Church  as  the  means  of 
counteracting  the  temptations  of  the  world.  Ten  of 
them  are  on  the  subject  of  clerical  discipline,  twenty 
on  Church  discipline  in  general,  and  five  on  the  way 
of  conducting  the  Church  services.  The  remaining 
two  are  on  clerical  celibacy  and  on  the  use  of  paint- 
ings in  churches. 

The  last  of  these  is  a  canon  of  great  importance, 
as  showing  the  practice  of  the  Church  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  fourth  century,  and  giving  the  reasons  for 
the  practice.  The  canon  runs  as  follows  : — ''  We 
determine  that  there  ought  not  to  be  paintings  in 
the  church,  lest  the  object  of  our  worship  and  adora- 
tion be  painted  on  the  walls."  That  the  prohibition 
of  paintings  in  churches  at  this  time  and  throughout 
the  century  was  a  rule  of  the  Universal  Church,  is 
proved  by  the  well-known  act  of  Epiphanius  in 
tearing  down  a  curtain  on  which  a  figure  was  por- 
trayed, although  he  did  not  bear  any  authority  in  the 
district  where  the  church  was  situated,  on  the  mere 
grounds  that  it  was  contrary  to  the  discipline  of  the 
Catholic  Church  to  admit  such  representations  into 
churches.  The  especial  value  of  i/it's  canon  is  that 
it  gives  the  reasons  why,  in  the  e3^es  of  the  Synod, 
paintings  were  inadmissible.  The  Bishops  do  not 
object  to  pictures  of  paintings  on  the  score  of  their 
being  pictures  or  paintings,  but  through  the  fear  that, 
if  they  admitted  any  pictures  at  all,  one  class  of 
paintings    should    find    their    way    in,    namely,    those 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  ELVIRA.  59 

which  represent  God  or  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  or 
any  object  of  worship  or  adoration.  The  fear  of 
admitting  paintings  representative  of  objects  of  wor- 
ship, and  therefore  conducive  to  idolatry,  led  the 
Synod  to  forbid  all  pictures  en  bloc.  It  is  evident 
that  the  principle  here  laid  down  covers  the  case 
not  only  of  pictures,  but  also  of  images.  Nothing 
that  might  become  to  the  congregation  or  to  any 
member  of  it  an  object  of  devotion  was  to  be  admitted 
into  a  church.  This  was  a  characteristic  which  dis- 
tinguished a  Christian  church  from  a  heathen  temple. 
When  Diocletian's  soldiers  broke  into  a  church  in 
Nicomedia  three  years  previously,  it  is  noted  as  a 
sign  of  their  total  ignorance  of  Christianity  that 
they  were  surprised  at  not  finding  some  representa- 
tion of  what  the  Christians  worshipped  in  it.  It  was 
not  till  the  second  Council  of  Nicaea,  a.d.  ySy,  that 
sanction  was  given  to  the  adoration  of  images  or 
pictures.  For  seven  centuries  Christianity  is  con- 
trasted with  heathendom,  as  being  entirely  free  from 
this  corruption  of  spiritual  worship. 

The  other  canon,  whose  consideration  we  have 
reserved,  is  of  a  different  character,  and  reflects  the 
harsh  and  stern  asceticism  for  which  Spanish  church- 
manship  has  been  too  much  distinguished.  It  forbids 
bishops,  priests,  and  deacons  to  live  as  husbands 
with  their  wives. ^  This  is  the  first  time  that  this 
rule  appears  in  Church  history.  Not  yet  had  man 
dared  to  exclude  from  the  ministry  of  the  Church 
married  men,  whom  S.  Paul  had  ordered  to  be 
specially    selected    for  it,   but  here  was  a  long  step 

^  Canon  xxxiii. 


eo  HISTORY  OF  TUB  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

toward  it ;  for  when  the  cohabitation  of  the  clergy 
with  their  wives  was  authoritatively  forbidden,  it 
was  only  a  question  of  time  how  soon,  in  spite  of 
S.  Paul,  clerical  celibacy  should  be  imposed.  S.  Paul 
had  enjoined  on  Timothy  and  Titus  to  select  for  the 
ministry  persons  who  were  ''  husbands  of  one  wife," 
more  exactly  "men  of  one  woman,"  by  which,  as 
Theodore  of  Mopsuestia  and  Theodoret  insist,  he 
meant  men  of  regular  life,  faithful  to  their  wives, 
and  keeping  themselves  only  to  them.  The  words 
were,  however,  understood  by  many  to  prohibit  second 
marriages,  and  very  soon  not  only  second  marriages, 
but  all  marriages  after  ordination  were  forbidden  to 
the  clergy.  The  next  step  was  that  which  is  em- 
bodied in  the  canon  before  us.  But  this  curtailment 
of  Christian  liberty  was  never  admitted  by  the  Church 
at  large.  An  attempt  was  made  to  force  it  on  the 
whole  Church  at  Nicaea,  but  that  attempt  was  frus- 
trated by  the  firmness  of  Paphnutius ;  nor  did  the 
discipline  ever  prevail  in  the  East.  It  was  the  growth 
of  the  gloomy  religiousness  of  Spain  now  first  show- 
ing itself,  and  it  was  Spain  that  again  led  the  way 
in  enforcing  it  in  the  first  Council  of  Toledo.-^  From 
Spain  France  borrowed  it,  the  Councils  at  Aries  and 
Macon,  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries,  denouncing 
the  punishment  of  deposition  on  all  clergy  who  prac- 
tised cohabitation,  and  thus  it  spread  throughout  the 
West.  The  East,  on  the  contrary,  looked  on  this 
rigorism  with  increasing  disfavour,  and  at  length,  in 
the  Council  of  Trullo,  condemned  by  name  the  prac- 
tice of  the  Roman  Church  and  vindicated  the  right 
1  Canon  i. 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  ELVIRA.  6i 

of  the  clergy  to  be  fathers  of  families.-^  The  Western 
discipline  necessarily,  and  in  no  long  time,  led  to  celi- 
bacy on  the  part  of  the  clergy,  and  to  the  consequent 
degradation  of  the  general  conception  of  marriage,  as 
though  it  were  a  state  inconsistent  with  the  highest 
holiness  and  less  chaste  than  single  life. 

All  the  canons  of  the  Council  of  Elvira  are  re- 
markable for  their  severity.  So  remarkable,  indeed, 
are  they  for  this  characteristic,  that  the  Synod  has 
been  charged  with  Novatianism.  The  first  canon  in 
particular  has  led  to  this  accusation,  for  it  forbids 
the  restoration  of  those  who  have  once  lapsed  and 
been  guilty  of  offering  sacrifice  to  idols.  They  can- 
not, says  the  canon,  be  received  into  communion, 
even  at  the  end  of  their  lives.  This  was  the  specific 
tenet  of  Novatianism,  but  it  was  not  confined  to  that 
sect ;  there  was  a  stern  and  harsh  school  of  teach- 
ing before  the  time  of  Novatian,  sometimes  formally 

^  "  As  we  know  that  the  Roman  Church  has  ruled  that  candidates 
for  the  diaconate  or  the  presbyterate  are  to  make  profession  that  they 
will  no  longer  live  with  their  wives,  we,  ol^serving  the  ancient  canon 
of  apostolical  perfection  anci  order,  declare  the  marriages  of  all  in  holy 
orders  are  to  be  held  valid,  and  we  refuse  to  forbid  cohabitation,  and 
will  not  deprive  them  of  conjugal  intercourse  at  proper  times.  There- 
fore, if  a  man  is  found  fit  to  be  ordained  subdeacon,  deacon,  or  pres- 
byter, he  is  not  to  be  refused  on  the  ground  of  cohabiting  with  his 
wife.  Nor  at  the  time  of  ordination  is  any  one  to  be  required  to  profess 
that  he  will  abstain  from  intercourse  with  his  lawful  wife,  lest  he  thus 
do  dishonour  to  marriage,  which  was  instituted  by  God  and  blessed  by 
His  presence,  the  Gospel  declaring  aloud,  'What  God  hath  joined 
together  let  not  man  put  asunder  ; '  and  the  Apostle  teaching,  *  Mar- 
riage is  honourable  in  all  and  the  bed  undefiled,'  and,  '  Art  thou  bound 
to  a  wife,  seek  not  to  be  loosed.'  If,  then,  any  one,  in  spite  of  the 
apostolical  canons,  be  induced  to  forbid  priests,  deacons,  and  sub- 
deacons  to  cohabit  and  hold  intercourse  with  their  lawful  wives,  let 
him  be  deposed.  And  likewise  if  any  priest  or  deacon  dismisses  his 
wife  on  the  pretext  of  piety,  let  him  be  excommunicated  ;  and  if  he  b^ 
obstinate,  let  him  be  deposed"  (Canon  xiii.,  Harduin.  ConciL,  iv.  1666). 


62  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

separating  itself  (like  the  Montanists)  from  those  who 
were  more   humane  in   their  opinions,  sometimes   re- 
maining within   the  borders  of  the  Catholic  Church. 
Elvira  presents  to  us  the  teaching  of  this  hard  and 
stern  school  in  all  its   harshness.      We  find  in  it  the 
tenets  of  Novatianism,  but  it  is  in  no  way  connected 
with  the  Novatian   sect.      Its   harshness  may  be  ac- 
counted  for  by  two   considerations  :  first,  that  it  was 
made  up  of  Spaniards,  in   whom  religion    has  at   all 
times    worn    a   gloomy    and    morose    appearance,    its 
characteristic   being  rather  the  sternness  of  a  grand 
and  self-sacrificing  asceticism   than  the  pitifulness  of 
a  faith  whose  innermost  principle  is  love  ;   and  next, 
we  must  remember  the  circumstances  under  which  the 
Council  was  called.     The  persecution  had  not  been  of 
the  violent   and  bloody  nature  which  characterised  it 
in  the  East.     Constantine  had   thrown  his  protecting 
shield  over  the  professors  of  the  new  religion  in  the 
West  ;  yet  the  tyranny  of  Dacian   had   thwarted  the 
intentions   of  the  Caesar,  and    at  least  thirty  martyrs 
had   perished  by  the   sword  or  by  fire  or  by  torture. 
This    was   not  enough  to   cow  those  who  were  sub- 
jected to  it,  and  the  persecution  which   does  not  cow 
naturally  brings  out  a  spirit   of  resistance  and  fierce 
zeal    in    behalf    of    the    assailed    faith.      Triumphant 
rejoicing  in  the  courage  of  those  who  had  resisted  unto 
blood   led    to   a   contempt   for  those    who   had   failed, 
and    provoked    a    stern    legislation    to    punish    their 
weakness.     Just  emerging  from  persecution,  which  had 
irritated  without  crushing,  they  were  not  likely  to  be 
tender  in   the   rules   of  conduct  which  they  enjoined 
or  the  penalties  which  they  imposed,  but  their  severity 


THE  COUNCIL  OF  ELVIRA.  63 

does   not   give   cause  for   charging   the    Synod    with 
Novatianism. 

We  may  gather  up,  in  conclusion,  a  few  points 
which  are  indicated  or  impHed  by  the  canons  of  the 
Council.  The  first  of  these  is  the  existence  of  magical 
superstitions,  shown  by  a  practice  which  the  Council 
had  to  forbid,  of  lighting  candles  by  day  and  placing 
them  in  cemeteries,  with  a  view  of  calling  up  or  other- 
wise disquieting  the  spirits  of  the  dead/  We  see  also 
that  Christians  had  Pagan  labourers  on  their  farms, 
and  that  they  had  heathen  slaves  in  such  large 
numbers  that  they  did  not  dare  to  deprive  them  of 
their  idols  for  fear  of  a  mutiny.^  The  presence  of  a 
large  number  of  Jews  is  also  implied,  the  descendants 
probably  of  emigrants  who  had  entered  Spain  from 
Africa  about  a  hundred  years  before  Christ.  Chris- 
tians are  forbidden  to  intermarry  both  with  Jews  and 
heretics,^  or  to  eat  with  Jews,^  or  to  allow  Jews  to 
pronounce  a  blessing  on  the  fruits  given  by  God.^ 
A  point  of  ecclesiastical  discipline  is  proved  by  Canon 
liii.,  which  orders  that  if  a  bishop  receives  into  com- 
munion a  man  excommunicated  by  another  bishop,  he 
does  it  at  his  peril,  and  must  prove  before  his  brethren 
— that  is,  the  Provincial  Synod — that  he  was  right  in 
so  acting,  or  be  himself  deprived  of  his  office.  This 
shows  that  the  highest  authority  was  not  the  metro- 
politan bishop,  who  did  not  yet  exist  in  Spain,  much 
less  any  bishop  outside  Spain,  but  the  Synod  of  equal 
bishops.  There  was  a  first  See,^'  but  this  was  the 
See  occupied  by  the  oldest  bishop.      An  interesting 

1  Canon  xxxiv.  ^  Canons  xl.,  xli.  ^  Canon  xvi. 

^  Canon  1.  5  Canon  xlix.  ^  Canon  Iviii. 


64  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

reference  to  such  cases  as  that  of  Eulaha  is  found  in 
the  canon  which  forbids  a  man  to  be  regarded  as  a 
martyr  who  has  broken  the  idols  and  been  slain  for 
doing  so ;  and  a  wholesome  reason  is  given  for  this 
regulation,  "  seeing  that  it  is  not  written  in  the 
Gospel,  nor  will  it  be  found  to  be  ever  done  by  the 
Apostles."  ^ 

^  Canon  Ix. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

BISHOP  HOSIUS  OF  CORDOVA. 

The  man  who  was  no  doubt  the  most  influential 
member  of  the  Council  of  Elvira,  though  too  young 
to  have  officially  presided  over  it,  was  Hosius,  Bishop 
of  Cordova,  whom  we  may  designate  as  the  greatest 
man  that  the  Spanish  Church  has  produced.  He  was 
a  native  of  Spain,  and  born  about  the  year  256  ;  he 
was,  therefore,  about  forty- eight  years  old  at  the  time 
that  the  Council  was  held.  He  states  himself,  in  his 
letter  to  the  Emperor  Constantius,  that  hejwas  a  con- 
fessor in  the  time  of  Maximian,  the  Emperor's  grand- 
father and  the  colleague  of  Diocletian.  What  the 
nature  of  his  confession  was — that  is,  what  suffering 
he  underwent — he  does  not  tell  us,  nor  have  we  any 
information  upon  the  subject ;  probably  he  was  com- 
pelled to  withdraw  from  Cordova  at  the  time  of  the 
persecution  of  303-304,  which  we  know  extended  to 
the  city  of  Cordova,  in  the  same  manner  as  S.  Cyprian, 
under  like  circumstances,  retired  from  Carthage.  Cor- 
dova was  at  this  time  a  city  of  great  importance ;  not 
long  ago  it  had  produced  Lucan  and  the  Senecas, 
afterwards  it  became  the  capital  of  the  great  Moslem 
Empire  in  Spain.  The  Bishop  of  Cordova,  in  the 
beginning  of  the   fourth   century,    must  have  held   a 

high   position    in   virtue    of  his    See,   without   taking 

65 


66  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

into  consideration   the   personal  qualifications  of  the 
occupant. 

Not  long  after  the  Synod  of  Elvira  there  commenced 
that  acquaintanceship  of  Hosius  with  the  Emperor 
Constantine  which  was  of  such  great  moment  to  the 
Christian  Church.  When  Constantine  had  succeeded 
his  father  in  306,  he  resolved  to  visit  the  provinces 
subjected  to  his  jurisdiction.-^  This  would  necessarily 
have  led  him  to  Spain,  and  there  he  found  Hosius 
standing  a  head  and  shoulders  above  every  one  in 
the  Peninsula,  living  at  Cordova,  which  Constantine 
could  not  have  failed  to  have  visited.  The  Emperor 
was  at  this  time  in  a  mood  to  seek  out  Christian 
bishops  and  to  note  any  among  them  who  exhibited 
a  statesmanlike  capacity.  There  is  little  doubt  that 
he  invited  Hosius  to  his  side  at  this  time.  Six  years 
later  occurred  the  vision  of  the  cross,  and  we  may 
conjecture  that  Hosius  was  one  of  the  chief  of  those 
"priests  of  God"  whom  we  are  told  he  at  that  time 
made  his  counsellors.^  From  this  time  forward  he 
seems  to  have  been  the  chief  influence  at  court  until 
after  the  Council  of  Nicaea,  when  he  was  superseded 
in  the  imperial  esteem  by  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia. 
Constantine  appears  to  have  used  not  only  his  advice, 
but  his  pen  in  writing  imperial  letters  which  affected 
the  Church.  In  313  we  find  him  communicating  the 
imperial  will  to  Ccccilian,  Bishop  of  Carthage,  in  re- 
spect to  the  distribution  of  a  grant  of  money.  When 
the  Donatists  were  condemned  by  Constantine  in  316 
at  Milan,  they  attributed  their  failure  to  the  influence 
of  Hosius   with    the   Emperor.      In   321    Constantine 

1  Eusebius,  Li/e  of  Coustanlinc,  i.  25.  -  Ibid. 


BISHOP  HOSIUS  OF  CORDOVA.  67 

addressed  to  him  a  law  which  he  promulgated,  sanc- 
tioning   the   freedom    of    slaves    emancipated   in    the 
presence  of  the  bishops  or  clergy.      When  the  Arian 
controversy   began,    the    Emperor    employed    Hosius, 
although   he  seems  to  have   been  unacquainted   with 
the   Greek  language,   to   carry  letters   to   Alexander, 
Bishop  of  Alexandria,  and  to  Arius.      But  the  contest 
between  Arius  and  his  opponents  v^as  not  such  as  to 
be  composed  by  the  Emperor's  exhortations  to  peace, 
or  the  counsels  of  the  Bishop  of  Cordova,   to  whom 
the  subtleties  of  the  Greek   theological   terms  had  to 
be  explained  and  translated,  wherever  the  Latin  tongue 
had  an  equivalent  to  the  Greek  expression.     Hosius 
returned    to    Constantine    reporting    that    throughout 
Egypt  an  obstinate  conflict  of  opinion  existed.      Con- 
stantine on  this   resolved   to   summon  the  Council  of 
Nicaea,  which  Sulpitius  Severus   states   to  have  been 
done  on  the  suggestion   of  Hosius.^      The  Council  of 
Nicaea  was  held  in  the  year  325.      The  Emperor  had 
summoned  it,  and  to  whom   should  he  commit  those 
functions  which  he  was  not  able  himself  to  perform  in 
directing  and  presiding  over  the  Council  ?     There  were 
some  great  Eastern  prelates  present  at  the  Council — 
the  two  Eusebiuses,  Alexander,  Eustathius  of  Antioch, 
Macarius  of  Jerusalem — but  there  was  no  one  in  the 
Western  Church  to  come  near  to  Hosius  in  reputation 
or  character.     Constantine,  himself  a  Western  rather 
than  an  Eastern,  desirous  above  all   things  of  peace, 
and  distrusting  and  displeased  with  Eastern  subtlety 
and  love  of  disputation,  would  naturally  have  preferred 
a  Western   bishop,   and  of  Western   bishops  Hosius, 

^  Bis^.,  ii.  55. 


68  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

whose  reputation  stood  highest,  whom  he  had  ah'eady 
employed  in  an  effort  to  reconcile  opponents,  and  by 
whose  advice  he  had  probably  summoned  the  Council. 
Mosius  was  appointed  to  this  office,  as  is  shown  by 
his  name  appearing  first  in   the  Hst  of  subscriptions. 
The  eminent  position  which  he  held  was  perhaps  due 
in  part  to  his  modesty,  w^hich  would  have  commended 
him  to  the  imperial  favour  as  a  man  likely  to  soothe 
rather  than    sharpen   conflict.      The   supposition   that 
he  presided  as  legate  of  the   Bishop  of  Rome  is  an 
instance  of  an  idea,  which  took   its   birth   in   a  later 
age,  being  attributed   to   earlier   times   to  which  it  is 
quite   alien.      The    Bishop   of  Rome's  jurisdiction   at 
this   time   extended  only   from   Perugia  to   the  south 
of  Italy,   nor  did   he   hold   any   eminence  among   his 
brethren  except  that  which  was  derived  from  having 
the    imperial   city  for   his    diocese.      Owing   to   that 
position    he    was    one  of   the    few   Western    bishops 
summoned  to  the  Council,  where,   being  an  old  man, 
he    was    represented    by   two    presbyters,    who    sign 
next  after   Hosius.     When  Baronius,  Fleury,  Hefele, 
and    others    maintain    that    he   mtisi    have    presided 
at    the    Council,    and    that    therefore    Hosius    mus( 
have    been   his   legate,    they   are   imposing    upon   the 
'  Nicene  age  a  theory  that  was  altogether  unknown  to 
it.     The   idea  apparently  originated  with  Gclasius  of 
Cysicus,  a  writer  of  little  credit,  who  lived  about  476, 
if  the  work  attributed  to  him  be  genuine.      Hosius 
owed  his  position  to  the  Emperor's  appointment,  just 
as  Marinus   did   at   the   Council  of  Aries   in   314,   at 
which    Council    the    Bishop   of   Rome   was   similarly 
represented  by  two  presbyters.      As   the  Acts  of  the 


BISHOP  HOSIUS  OF  CORDOVA.  69 

Council  of  Nicaea  have  not  been  preserved,  we  cannot 
tell  what  part  Hosius  took  in  the  debates,  but  from 
his  general  character  we  may  infer,  that  while  firmly 
maintaining  the  orthodox  faith  and  the  horuo-ousion 
symbol,  he  was  conciliatory  and  tolerant  to  the 
Eusebian  party,  which  favoured  Arius.  He  appears 
to  have  carried  with  him  his  patron  the  Emperor 
Constantine  ;  but  already  the  subtle  influence  of 
Eusebius  of  Nicomedia  was  beginning  to  undermine 
that  of  the  straightforw^ard  Bishop  of  Cordova.  The 
year  of  the  Council  of  Nicsea  appears  to  have  been 
the  culminating  point  of  Hosius'  power  at  court.  On 
the  breaking  up  of  the  Synod  he  withdrew,  like  most 
of  the  other  prelates,  into  retirement,  and  his  place 
as  ecclesiastical  adviser  to  the  Emperor  was  gradually 
taken  by  Eusebius. 

For  twenty  years  after  the  Council  of  Nicaea, 
Hosius  disappears  from  sight,  but  he  was  not  idle. 
It  would  seem  that  he  spent  this  time  in  the  govern- 
ment of  his  important  diocese,  and  in  the  organisation 
of  the  Spanish  Church,  performing  for  Spain  a  work 
similar  to  that  done  for  England  by  Archbishop  Theo- 
dore. In  the  earliest  times  Spain  was  divided  into 
two  civil  provinces  ;  Augustus  increased  the  number 
to  three,  and  in  the  time  of  Constantine  the  three 
became  five — Baetica,  Lusitania,  Tarraconensis,  Car- 
thaginensis,  and  Galicia,  to  which  were  afterwards 
added  Tingitana,  or  the  province  of  Tangier,  and  that 
of  the  Balearic  Islands.  Church  organisation  followed 
that  of  the  state.  Down  to  the  time  of  Constantine 
there  had  been  no  metropolitans  in  Spain  ;  but  with 
the  constitution  of  the  new  civil  provinces   the  terri- 


:o  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIiW. 

torial  organisation  of  the  Church  became  more  com- 
plete. Seville  was  raised  to  the  highest  civil  rank  in 
Baetica  by  being  the  residence  of  the  Roman  vicai^ms, 
becoming  thereby  the  metropolis  of  the  province. 
Cordova,  however,  where  the  Roman  comes  resided, 
rivalled  it  in  dignity,  and  the  fact  of  its  being  the 
See  occupied  by  Hosius  preserved  its  ecclesiastical 
pre-eminence  during  his  incumbency  and  that  of  his 
successor.  Seville  then  became  the  metropolitan 
See  of  the  province,  and  round  it  were  grouped  ten 
suffragan  dioceses.-^  The  metropolitan  See  of  Lusi- 
tania  was  Merida,  and  there  were  eight  suffragan 
Sees.^  Tarragona  was  the  metropolitan  See  of  Tarra- 
conensis,  and  the  suffragan  Sees  were  fifteen.^  Car- 
thaginensis  had  at  first  Cartagena  for  its  metropolitan 
See,  but  after  a  time  it  was  superseded,  as  we  shall 
see,  by  Toledo.  In  addition  to  these  two,  there  were 
twenty-two  bishoprics."*  Galicia  had  for  its  metro- 
polis Braga,  and  there  were  thirteen  suffragans.^ 
The  person   by  whom  the  necessary  adaptations  of 

1  (l)  Italica  or  Old  Seville  ;  (2)  Niebla  ;  (3)  Ecija  ;  (4)  Cordova  ; 

(5)  Cabra;  (6)  Elvira;  (7)  Malaga;   (8)  Medina  Sidonia  ;  (9)  Martos; 

(10)  Adra. 

2  (i)  Avila ;  (2)  Salamanca;  (3)  Evora  ;  (4)  Coria  ;  (5)  Ueja ;  (6) 
Estoy  ;  (7)  Lisbon  (Olisippo)  ;  (8)  Eidania. 

3  (i)Tortosa;  (2)  Zaragoza;  (3)Tarazona;  (4)  Calahorra ;  (5)0caj 

(6)  Huesca;  (7)  Pampelona;  (8)  Lerida;  (9)  Barcelona;  (10)  Tarrassa; 

(11)  Ausona  ;  (12)  Gerona  ;  (13)  Empurias  ;  (14)  Urgel  ;  (15)  Veleia. 

4  (I)  Alcala(CompIutum);  (2)  Osma;  (3)  Pallentia;  (4)  Valera ;  (5) 
Saguntum;  (6)  Segovia;  (7)  Areas;  (8)  Oreto  ;  (9)  Valencia;  (10) 
Denia;  (ii)  Xativa  ;  (12)  Baza;  (13)  Mentesa  ;  (14)  Salaria ;  (15) 
Guadix  ;  (16)  Segorbe  ;  (17)  Castnlo  ;  (18)  Bigastrum  ;  (19)  Alicante  ; 
(20)  Ergavica  ;  (21)  Lorca  ;  (22)  Urci. 

^  (i)  Dumium;  (2)  El  Puerto  ;  (3)  Coimbra;  (4)  Viseo ;  (5)  Lamego; 
(6)  Valencia  ;  (7)  Leon  ;  (8)  Lugo  (itself  for  a  time  a  metropolitan  See); 
(9)  Iria  Flavia  or  El  Padron  ;  (10)  Orense  ;  (n)  Tuy  ;  (12)  Astoiga  ; 
(I3)0retagna. 


BISHOP  HOSIUS  OF  CORDOVA.  71 

church  organisation  were  made  was,  we  may  con- 
fidently conjecture.  Bishop  Hosius,  for  we  may  feel 
sure  that  no  great  measures  were  taken  affecting  the 
Church  of  Spain  during  the  first  half  of  the  fourth 
century  without  the  controlling  direction  of  the  great 
Bishop  of  Cordova.  Henceforth  we  may  regard  the 
Church  of  Spain  as  governed  by  five  metropolitans 
and  about  seventy  bishops.-^ 

Hosius  was  never  again  summoned  to  the  imperial 
court,  and  without  the  Emperor's  summons  no  bishop 
might  leave  his  diocese  and  approach  it.  In  his 
absence  Constantine  fell  under  the  influence  of  Euse- 
bius  of  Nicomedia,  and  when  Constantius  succeeded 
to  the  imperial  dignity  in  337,  the  court  became 
altogether  Arian.  In  347  the  Council  of  Sardica 
was  held,  the  purpose  of  which  was  to  effect  a  recon- 
ciliation between  the  Eusebian  and  Athanasian  parties 
The  most  suitable  man  to  preside  over  such  a  Council 
was  Hosius, — orthodox  himself  and  a  firm  friend  of 
Athanasius,  but  at  the  same  time  possessed  of  a 
breadth  of  mind  and  a  spirit  of  toleration  uncommon 
at  all  times,  and  specially  during  the  period  of  the 
Arian  controversies.  Sardica  was  intended  to  be 
an  CEcumenical  Council,  and  therefore,  like  all-  the 
(Ecumenical  Councils,  it  was  summoned  by  imperial 
authority.  The  Emperors  at  this  time  were  Constans 
and  Constantius,  and  Constans  sent  Athanasius  into 
France,  there  to  meet  Hosius  and  conduct  him  to 
Sardica,  which  was  centrally  situated,  near  the  borders 

^  The  notitia  from  which  the  details  of  the  Sees  is  derived  is  of 
somewhat  later  date  than  that  of  Hosius,  but  it  is  probable  that  the 
later  represents  the  earlier  list  pretty  accurately. 


72  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

of  the  two  divisions  of  the  empire,  in  the  country  then 
called  Illyricum.  The  Eusebian  party  numbered  nearly 
eighty,  the  Athanasians  nearly  a  hundred.  Hosius  pre- 
sided by  imperial  appointment,  as  he  had  done  twenty 
years  before  at  the  Council  of  Nicaea.  The  Eusebians 
felt  that,  with  the  majority  against  them  and  Hosius  in 
the  chair,  they  would  be  defeated  on  all  points  at  issue. 
They  therefore  took  advantage  of  the  presence  and 
recognition  of  Athanasius  and  his  friends  to  refuse  to 
take  their  seats  in  the  Council.  They  made  a  special 
appeal  to  Hosius  to  eject  Athanasius  as  a  man  already 
condemned  by  the  Councils  of  Tyre  and  Antioch. 
This  demand  Hosius  refused,  as  the  authority  of  an 
(Ecumenical  Council,  which  Sardica  was  intended  to 
be,  would  supersede  that  of  provincial  councils,  such  as 
Tyre  and  Antioch.  But  he  acted  with  great  forbear- 
ance. He  requested  the  Eusebians  to  bring  forwaid 
their  proofs  against  Athanasius  either  before  the 
Synod  or  before  himself  personally,  promising  that 
if  Athanasius  were  proved  guilty  he  should  not  be 
allowed  to  sit.  The  Eusebians  did  not  accept  these 
terms,  and  on  the  plea  that  the  Emperor  had  notified 
to  them  his  victory  over  the  Persians,  and  that  they 
were  therefore  bound  to  offer  him  their  congratula- 
tions, they  took  their  immediate  departure.  Sardica 
thus  failed  to  be  an  OEcumenical  Council,  for  it  did 
not  represent  the  Eastern  Church.  The  remaining 
Bishops,  guided  by  Hosius,  acquitted  Athanasius, 
Marcellus  of  Ancyra,  and  Asclepas  of  Gaza,  of  the 
charges  which  had  been  brought  against  them,  and 
drew  up  twenty  canons,  fifteen  of  which  were  pro- 
posed by  Hosius  in  his  capacity  of  chnirnian.      They 


BISHOP  HOSIUS  OF  CORDOVA.  73 

deal  for  the  most  part  with  general  church  discipline. 
One  of  them  (Canon  iii.)  is  famous  for  having  granted 
a  right  of  appeal  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome  under  the 
following  circumstances.  In  case  a  bishop  was 
deposed  by  his  com-provincial  bishops,  and  was  not 
satisfied  with  their  decision,  a  letter  might  be  ad- 
dressed to  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  at  the  desire  of  the 
condemned  person,  by  those  who  had  pronounced 
judgment,  and  if  the  Bishop  of  Rome  thought  well, 
he  might  desire  the  trial  to  be  renewed  before  the 
bishops  of  the  neighbouring  province,  and  might  add 
to  them  some  judges  of  his  own  appointment.  This 
is  the  first  sanction  given  by  authority — the  authority 
of  a  provincial  council — to  that  system  of  appeals  to 
Rome  which  afterwards  took  such  portentous  pro- 
portions. We  see  how  limited  the  privilege  was  as 
proposed  by  Hosius  and  passed  by  the  Council ;  and 
even  that  concession  was  done  away  with  by  the 
(Ecumenical  Council  of  Chalcedon,  which  forbade 
appeals  to  be  carried  beyond  the  Patriarch  or  Exarch 
of  each  civil  diocese,  except  in  the  case  of  Con- 
stantinople, where  the  rule  was  slightly  relaxed,  that 
city  having  become  the  headquarters  of  the  imperial 
power.^ 

The  Eusebian  Bishops  who  parted  from  the  West- 
erns at  Sardica  halted  at  Philippopolis,  and  there  con- 
demned the  prelates  who  had  remained  behind  (speci- 

1  The  right  derived  by  the  See  of  Rome  from  the  decree  of  Sardica 
is  like  that  which  would  be  enjoyed  by  the  throne  of  Canterbury  in 
any  colony  of  the  British  Empire  where  the  Church  of  the  country  had 
granted  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  permission  to  decide  whether 
there  should  be  a  second  trial  in  case  of  dissatisfaction  with  the  result 
of  a  first  trial,  and  to  send  an  English  clergyman  to  nssist  the  court. 


74  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

ally  naming  Hosius)  for  holding  communion  with 
Athanasius,  for  supporting  and  companying  with 
wicked  men,  and  for  persecuting  one  Mark,  whom 
they  pronounced   to   be  of  blessed  memory.-^ 

The  Council  of  Sardica  was  held  in  347.  Hosius 
no  doubt  returned  to  Spain,  and  we  hear  no  more 
of  him  till  the  year  354,  when  Liberius,  Bishop  of 
Rome,  addressed  to  him  a  letter  full  of  respect  for 
his  consistency  in  opposing  Arianism.  Next  year 
Constantine  banished  Liberius ;  but  that  was  not 
enough.  The  great  ecclesiastic  of  the  West  was  not 
the  Bishop  of  Rome,  but  the  Bishop  of  Cordova. 
Athanasius  represents  Constantius'  Arian  advisers  as 
saying  that  they  had  done  nothing  until  they  had 
secured  Hosius.  The  Emperor  urged  the  old  man  to 
sign  the  condemnation  of  Athanasius.  He  refused 
with  indignation,  and  left  the  imperial  court.  Con- 
stantius wrote  to  him,  and  received  a  vigorous  reply 
which  is  still  extant.  In  the  year  357,  when  he  had 
now  passed  his  hundredth  year,  his  presence  was 
once  more  commanded  by  the  Emperor  at  Sirmium. 
At  this  place  a  Synod  was  held,  where  there  was 
published  a  heterodox  creed,  which  Hosius  was 
induced,  ^'  by  stripes  and  tortures,"  says  the  historian 
Socrates,  ^'  by  repeated  blows,"  says  Athanasius,  to 
subscribe.  Great  was  the  rejoicing  throughout  the 
Arian  world.  The  pillar  of  Nicene  orthodoxy  had 
fallen.  Hosius  returned  heart-stricken  to  Spain. 
Hilary  of  Poictiers  says  that  he  yielded  in  order  that 
he  might  return  to  die  and  be  buried  in  his  own 
land.      Almost  as  soon   as  he  had  reached   home  he 

^  Hilary,  Fragm.  iii,,  vol.  ii.  674. 


BISHOP  HOSIUS  OF  CORDOVA.  75 

was  struck  with  paralysis.  But  before  this  occurred 
he  had  repudiated  the  concessions  to  Arianism  which 
had  been  wrung  from  him  by  violence  and  fraud,  and 
had  returned  to  the  orthodox  faith,  which  he  had 
consistently  maintained  throughout  the  greater  part 
of  a  century.  In  him  died  the  Bishop  who  stood 
next  to  Athanasius  in  reputation  in  the  fourth  century, 
nor  has  the  Spanish  Church  ever  produced  a  prelate 
equal  to  him  since  that  time. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

SPANISH  CHURCHMEN  OF  THE  FOURTH  CENTURY. 

The  tenderness  with  which  Athanasius  looked  upon 
the  fall  of  his  old  brother-in-arms,  the  champion  of 
the  faith  in  the  West,  as  he  in  the  East,  is  charac- 
teristic of  the  man.  Formerly  he  had  spoken  of  him 
as  "  the  great  Hosius,  the  father  of  the  bishops," 
and  extolled  his  ''blameless  life."^  After  he  had 
given  way  he  would  not  condemn  him — he  could 
hardly  blame  him  ;  "  he  yielded  for  a  time,  being 
aged  and  infirm  ; "  ^  ^'  at  the  approach  of  death  he 
abjured  the  Arian  heresy,  testifying  to  the  violence 
which  had  been  used  towards  him."  ^  But  men  of  a 
different  cast  of  character  from  Athanasius  were  not 
so  forbearing.  There'  are  minds  so  constituted  that 
the  fall  of  a  superior,  when  they  have  themselves 
stood  firm,  inspires  them  with  a  sense  of  self-satisfac- 
tion, and  such  persons  do  not  spare  the  man  whom 
they  suppose  to  have  sunk  below  their  own  level 
from  any  pity  for  his  lost  greatness.  Such  a  man 
seems  to  have  been  Gregory  of  Elvira,  known  as  S. 
Gregorius  Bseticus.  He  was  firm  in  maintaining  the 
faith,  perhaps  so  determined  to  be  orthodox  as  to 
have  passed  the  limits  of  orthodoxy  and  become  a 
Luciferian  ;  but  at  any  rate,  so  bold  in  maintaining  the 

^  //t'sf.  A?-iau.  46.  -  Afol.  pro  fiis^a,  5.  -^  Hist.  Arian.  45. 

76 


CHURCHMEN  OF  THE  FOURTH  CENTURY.      77 

truth,  as  to  have  won  from  Jerome  the  praise  of 
having  never  mixed  himself  up  with  Arian  pravity.-^ 
But  Gregory  was  not  large-hearted  enough  to  make 
allowance  for  the  decay  of  powers  attending  on  such 
an  age  as  that  of  a  hundred  years.  He  met  the  old 
man  as  he  came  back  to  die  in  his  native  land,  and 
harshly  refused  to  hold  communion  with  one  who 
had  communicated  with  heretics.  It  is  said,  but  on 
doubtful  authority,  that  the  disturbance  of  mind  and 
temper  caused  by  this  rebellion  against  his  quasi- 
patriarchal  authority  led  to  the  stroke  of  paralysis 
which  carried  off  the  aged  Bishop.^  Gregory  seems 
to  have  outlived  Hosius  by  about  twenty-five  years, 
and  to  have  made  a  bold  stand  for  the  truth  in  the 
Arian  Council  of  Rimini. 

The  Metropolitan  of  Merida  was  of  a  different 
temperament  from  Gregory  of  Elvira.  Florentius  had 
accompanied  his  Bishop,  Liberius  of  Merida,  to  the 
Council  of  Aries  in  314.  At  Sardica  he  was  pre- 
sent as  one  of  the  Bishops  that  composed  the  Coun- 
cil of  the  year  347,  and  there  witnessed  the  great 
Hosius  wielding  the  Council  and  determining  what 
resolutions  and  decrees  should  be  passed  by  it. 
When  the  broken-hearted  centenarian  came  back 
from  Sirmium,  he  met  him  kindly,  and  remembering 
rather  what  he  had  been  than  what  he  had  at  the 
last  hour  been  compelled  to  do,  he  joined  in  com- 
munion with  him  as  of  old.  But  this  act  gave  great 
offence   to  those  who    sympathised  with   Gregory  in 

^  Chj-onicle. 

2  Marcellini  et  Faustini  Presb5'teroniTn  Lil)el]us  Precum  ;  quoted  by 
Florez,  Espaiia  Sagrada,  vol.  x-, 


78  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

the  harsh  and  intolerant  view  that  he  had  adopted, 
and  when,  not  long  afterwards,  Florentius  fell  down 
three  times  in  a  fit  and  expired  in  the  church  of 
Merida  in  the  presence  of  a  large  congregation,  his 
death  was  attributed  by  them  to  divine  retribution. 
Faustinus  and  Marcellinus,  the  two  Luciferian  pres- 
byters to  whom  we  owe  the  report  of  the  manner  of 
Hosius'  death,  held  up  Florentius'  fate  as  a  warning 
to  backsliders.^  The  Metropolitan  dignity  had  pro- 
bably been  assigned  to  Florentius  by  the  action  of 
Hosius  when  he  reorganised  the  Spanish  Church  a 
quarter  of  a  century  earlier. 

The  first  known  Bishop  of  Lisbon,  Potamius,  is 
connected  with  Hosius'  fall  in  a  less  creditable  way. 
The  same  two  presbyters  who  have  given  an  account 
of  the  death  of  Hosius  and  Florentius  state  that  Con- 
stantine  induced  Potamius  to  join  the  Arians  by  the 
offer  of  a  farm,  and  Hilary  of  Poictiers,  who  has 
written  against  Hosius  with  an  acrimony  which  is 
surprising  and  hardly  intelligible,  says  that  Potamius 
•and  Hosius  together  drew  up  the  heretical  formula 
which  Hosius  subscribed  at  Sirmium.  No  doubt  this 
is  an  exaggeration,  but  Potamius  seems  to  have 
signed  and  circulated  the  formula,  and  to  have  co- 
operated with  the  Arians.  At  a  later  date  he  again 
professed  himself  an  Athanasian.  He  died,  according 
to  Faustinus  and  Marcellinus,  as  he  was  on  his  way 
to  the  farm  with  which  Constantius  had  bribed  him. 
He  is  the  author  of  two  sermons  on  Lazarus  and 
Isaiah.^  Lisbon  was  known  to  the  Romans  under 
the  name  of  Olisipo  or  Olisippo. 

1  LibeUus  Precum.  ■    ^  Pcitr.  Lot,  viii.  I  no. 


CHURCHMEN  OF  THE  FOURTH  CENTURY.      79 

The  first  ecclesiastical  writer  in  the  Church  of 
Spain  who  has  left  any  extant  works,  if  we  except 
Piosius'  letter  to  Constantiiis,  is  a  younger  con- 
temporary of  Hosius,  Pacian,  Bishop  of  Barcelona. 
Our  knowledge  of  him  is  derived  from  Jerome,  who 
tells  us  that  he  was  *'  Bishop  of  Barcelona  in  the 
Pyrenees ; "  that  he  was  a  man  of  chastened  elo- 
quence, eminent  for  his  life  and  writings ;  that  he 
wrote  a  book  called  the  Cervus,  and  another  against 
the  Novatians,  and  that  he  died  in  extreme  old  age  a 
little  before  392.  He  was,  therefore,  born  not  long 
after  the  year  300,  and  probably  succeeded  Prsetex- 
tatus,  the  first  known  Bishop  of  Barcelona,  about  the 
middle  of  the  century.  His  writings  have  no  local 
colouring,  and  were  it  not  for  Jerome's  testimony, 
we  should  have  judged  him  rather  to  belong  to  North 
Africa  than  to  Spain.  He  was  acquainted  with  Ter- 
tullian's  writings,  but  his  favourite  author  and  master 
is  Cyprian.  The  tenets  that  he  opposes  are  those  of 
Novatian,  which  do  not  seem  to  have  prevailed  to  any 
great  extent  in  Spain,  though  a  tendency  to  them  may 
be  traced  in  some  of  the  decrees  of  the  Council  of 
Elvira.  The  book  called  Cervus  or  Cervulus,  directed 
against  the  profligacy  accompanying  the  sports  with 
which  the  heathen  ushered  in  the  New  Year,  is  lost. 
There  are  extant  three  letters  to  the  Novatianist 
Sympronian,  and  two  treatises,  one  on  Baptism,  the 
other  an  Exhortation  to  Penitence.  The  letters  to 
Sympronian  contain  first  a  defence  of  the  word 
Catholic,  which  he  says  means  "  one  and  the  same 
everywhere,"  or  "  obedience  (not  only  to  some,  but) 
to  all  the  commands  of  God  "  (Ep.   i.   8) ;  and  next 


8o  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

an  argument  for  restoration  to  church  communion  of 
those  who  have  fallen  into  sin  after  baptism  and  have 
repented.  The  latter  point  he  develops  in  his  Parae- 
nesis  or  Exhortation  to  Penitence,  which  is  instruc- 
tive in  respect  to  the  discipline  of  the  Church  in  the 
fourth  century. 

The  Bishop  begins  with  the  command  of  the  Synod 
of  Jerusalem  (Acts  xv.  23,  24)  to  abstain  from  meats 
offered  to  idols,  from  blood,  and  from  fornication,  as 
the  text  of  his  treatise,  and  lays  it  down  that  there 
are  three  crimes  which  are  mortal  or  capital — idolatry, 
murder,  and  fornication.     Other  sins  may  be  amended 
by  the  earnest  efforts  of  the  sinner ;   if  he  has  been 
guilty  of  niggardliness,  he  may  force  himself  to  per- 
form liberal  acts  ;   if  he  has  been  morose,  he  may  be 
kind  ;   if  harsh,  gentle  ;   if  he  has  given  way  to  levity, 
he  may  exchange  it  for  gravity ;  if  he  has  cheated,  he 
may  be  honest ;   but  any  man  who  has  been  guilty  of 
these  three  sins,  idolatry,  blood-shedding,  fornication, 
must  submit  himself  to  the  discipline  of  public  peni- 
tence before  he  can   be  received  back  to  church  com- 
munion and   obtain   remission  of  his  transgressions. 
He  urges  men  guilty  of  these  crimes  not  to  be  ashamed 
to  place   themselves   in    the   ranks  of  the  penitents ; 
they  should  not  fear   the   eyes  of  their  brethren  ;  if 
they  did   not  hide  their  sins  from   the   brethren,  that 
is,  if  they  would  do  public  penance,  they  would  thereby 
receive  their  cure ;    the    cure    would   be    effected   by 
cutting    and    by    cautery,    that    is,    by    their    bearing 
suffering  and  grief,  as  David  bore  them,  and  by  their 
denying  themselves   the   ordinary  indulgences  of  life, 
as    men    unworthy    of   them,    so    they    would    obtain 


CHURCHMEN  OF  THE  FOURTH  CENTURY,      8i 

Christ's  absolution.  There  is  no  word  here  of  private 
confession  and  absolution  ;  the  time  for  that  had  not 
yet  arrived.  It  is  after  the  prayers  of  the  whole 
Church  that  pardon  is  to  be  granted  in  case  of  true 
penitence,  and  even  then  there  is  to  be  no  prejudging 
of  the  future  judgment.  Bishop  Pacian  was  the 
father  of  Dexter,^  to  whom  Jerome  dedicates  his 
book  De  Viris  Illustribus.  It  is  probable,  therefore, 
that  he  had  not  adopted  those  principles  of  asceticism 
which  were  beginning,  in  the  name  of  chastity,  to  dis- 
honour marriage.^ 

During  the  last  years  of  Pacian,  or  soon  after  his 
death,  Barcelona  received  as  a  resident  for  some  years 
in  the  city  another  author.  Paulinus,  know  afterwards 
as  Paulinus  of  Nola,  seems  to  have  been  born  in 
Bordeaux  in  353,  and  he  had  the  poet  Ausonius  for 
his  tutor.  After  he  had  come  to  middle  age  he  was 
baptized,  and  in  389  he  transferred  his  residence  to 
Barcelona.  Here  he  married  Therasia,  a  native  of 
the  town,  and  had  a  son,  who  died  and  was  buried  by 
his  parents  at  Alcala,  near  the  supposed  graves  of 
Justus  and  Pastor.  Inheriting  a  large  fortune  by  the 
death  of  his  brother,  he  devoted  the  greater  part  of 
it  to  the  redemption  of  captives  and  other  works  of 
charity.  In  393  he  was  ordained  priest  by  Lampius, 
successsor  to   Pacian   in   the   See    of   Barcelona,   and 

^  Dexter,  son  of  Bishop  Pacian,  held  high  office  under  Theodosius 
and  Honoriiis.  Jerome  having  stated  that  he  had  written  a  chronicle, 
a  chronicle  under  the  name  of  Dexter  was  published  in  1620.  It  is 
known  by  the  name  of  Pseudo-Dexter,  and  was  composed  by  a  Spanish 
Jesuit,  Jerome  de  Higuera. 

2  Pacian's  letters  and  treatises,  translated  into  English,  will  be  found 
appended  to  Cyprian's  Epistles  in  the  Library  of  the  Fathers,  vol.  xvii., 
Oxford,  1844.     Florez  prints  them  in  vol.  xxix. 


82  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

the  following  year  he  passed  to  Nola  in  Campania,  of 
which  city  he  became  bishop  ten  or  twelve  years  after- 
wards, and  there  he  died  in  the  year  431.  Among 
Paulinus'  correspondents  were  Sulpicius  Severus, 
Jerome,  and  Augustine.  His  extant  letters  are  fifty- 
one,  and  we  have  thirty-three  poems  by  him.  He  was 
a  man  of  pure  life  and  ascetic  piety. 

One   of  Paulinus'  friends  was  Vigilantius,  a  native 
of  Calahorra,  and  afterwards  a  priest  in   the  diocese 
of  Barcelona.      As  a  boy,  he  was  taken   by  Sulpicius 
Severus  into  his  household,  and  he  was  sent  by  him 
to  Paulinus,  just  after  the  latter  had  settled  in  Nola, 
with   one   of  the   letters   which   so  frequently   passed 
between  the  two  friends.      On  his  return  to  the  south 
of  France,   where   Severus    was   then   living,   he  was 
ordained   priest,  and   after  his   ordination   set  out  on 
a  journey  to  Jerusalem,  taking  Nola  on  the  way,  in 
order   that    he    might    see   Paulinus    once    more,   and 
obtain  from  him  an  introduction  to  Jerome,  w^ho  had 
now  taken  up  his  residence  in  the  Holy  Land.      He 
stayed  with  Jerome  in   his   monastery  at  Bethlehem, 
but   differences    seem   to  have    arisen    between   them 
on  the  subject  of  the  quarrel  between  the  Bishop  of 
Jerusalem  and  the  monasteries  of  Bethlehem,  and  on 
the  question  of  Origenism.     Jerome  could  not  brook 
opposition,   and  Vigilantius,  having   fulfilled   his   pur- 
pose of  visiting  Jerusalem,  returned  to  Europe,  again 
passing  by  Nola,  and  being  the  bearer  of  a  letter  from 
Jerome  to  Paulinus.     Having  settled  in  Aquitaine,  he 
became  known  among  his  compeers   as  a  learned  and 
travelled  man,  and  his  brother  priests  were  surprised, 
and  some  of  them  were   scandalised,  to  find   that   he 


CHURCHMEN  OF  THE  FOURTH  CENTURY.      83 

spoke  against  various  practices  which  had  grown  up 
in  the  Church,  and  that  he  called  them  superstitions. 
These  were  the  adoration  of  rehcs,  night  vigils,  burn- 
ing lights  by  da}^,  false  miracles,  monastic  ''  poverty," 
and  celibacy  of  the  clergy.  He  objected  also  to  the 
amount  of  alms-'  sent  to  the  poor  Christians  in  Pales- 
tine. Two  of  his  neighbours,  Desiderius  and  Ripa- 
rius,  perplexed  and  confounded  by  these  views,  wrote 
to  Jerome,  whose  reputation  for  learning  stood  higher 
than  any  one's  but  Augustine's,  to  ask  his  advice  on 
the  matter.  Jerome  had  already  imbibed  a  prejudice 
against  Vigilantius,  owing  to  their  differences  in  Pales- 
tine and  to  his  abrupt  departure,  and  to  his  having 
spoken  disrespectfully  of  Jerome's  proceedings  after 
his  return  to  the  West  ;  he  was  not  therefore  unwill- 
ing to  strike  a  blow  at  the  man  who  had  offended 
him.  He  wrote  at  once  to  Riparius  saying  that  no 
one  adored  relics,  but  that  he  could  not  answer  Vigi- 
lantius without  having  his  book  (which  he  had  written 
in  the  year  403)  before  him.  Accordingly,  Desiderius 
and  Riparius  sent  him  the  book  by  the  hands  of  a 
monk  named  Sisinnius,  who  was  going  to  Jerusalem 
with  alms  and  letters  from  the  faithful  in  Aquitaine, 
and  presents  from  Bishop  Exuperius  of  Toulouse,  in 
406.  Jerome  delayed  his  answer,  expecting  Sisinnius 
to  remain  for  a  considerable  time  at  Jerusalem,  but 
the  latter  was  called  away  suddenly,  and  Jerome  had 
to  write  his  reply  at  one  sitting.  His  treatise  bears 
signs  of  the  haste  in  which  it  was  composed,  being 
rather  an  invective  than  an  argument.  It  appears  to 
have  done  little  or  no  injury  at  the  time  to  Vigilantius, 
who  was  supported   by  his  bishop   in  Aquitaine,  and 

G 


84  HISTORY  OP  THE  CHUIiCH  OF  SPAIN. 

was  shortly  afterwards  welcomed  into  the  diocese  of 
Barcelona.  Vigilantius  appears  to  have  been  a  man 
who  made  an  unsuccessful  struggle  against  the  tend- 
encies of  his  age.  The  stream  was  too  strong  for  him. 
He  made  his  protest ;  it  was  all  that  he  could  do ; 
and  he  has  earned  a  sinister  reputation  by  the  fact  of 
having  had  Jerome  for  an  opponent.-^ 

Contemporaneously,  as  it  would  appear,  with  Pacian, 
Paulinus,  and  Vigilantius  lived  another  Spaniard,  C. 
Vettius  Aquilinus  Juvencus,  who  has  the  honour  of 
being  the  first  Christian  poet  in  the  Latin  language, 
with  the  exception  of  Commodianus,  an  African  bishop 
of  the  previous  century.  He  has  versified  the  history 
of  the  Gospels,  taking  the  prae-vulgate  version  as  his 
text,  and  employing  the  hexameter  metre.  He  begins 
with  the  early  chapters  of  S.  Luke,  and  then  passes 
to  S.  Matthew,  whose  order  he  follows,  introducing 
long  passages  from  S.  John.  His  purpose  appears 
to  have  been  not  only  to  gratify  his  poetic  tastes,  but 
also  to  lead  people  to  the  study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
The  style  is  very  far  more  classical  than  that  of  Com- 
modianus, the  latter  disregarding,  or  being  ignorant 
of,  the  ordinary  rules  of  prosody,  while  Juvencus  does 
not  often  transgress  them.  This  would  show  that 
he  was  a  man  of  culture,  as  indeed  is  proved  by 
the  acquaintance  which  his  poems  exhibit  with  Virgil 
and  Ovid." 

1  See  Dr.  Gilly's  Vigilantius  and  his  limes.     London,  1S44. 

^  There  exist  fragments  of  a  history  of  the  Old  Testament,  written  in 
something  of  the  same  style  as  the  Historia  Evangdica,  which  has 
been  attributed  to  Juvencus.  They  were  first  supposed  to  be  a  com- 
position  of  S.  Cyprian  ;  then  they  were  given  to  Juvencus  on  the  faith 
of  a  ninth-century  manuscript ;  next  they  were  attributed  to  Aldhehn, 
on  the  authority  of  a  MS.  found  in  the  Library  of  Trinity  College, 


CHURCHMEN  OF  THE  FOURTH  CENTURY.       85 

Juvencus  led  the  way  to  a  greater  poet,  Aiirelius 
Prudentius  Clemens,  born  not  far  from  the  Pyrenees 
in  348.  He  was  a  man  of  good  birth,  and  held  high 
office  at  the  Emperor's  court.  Becoming  deeply 
affected  by  rehgion,  he  withdrew  from  public  life  and 
lived  in  Spain,  to  which  he  was  much  attached,  com- 
posing religious  poems,  from  which  we  derive  most 
valuable  information  respecting  the  Spanish  martyr- 
doms during  the  Diocletian  persecution.  Prudentius, 
who  is  as  superior  to  Juvencus  as  Juvencus  to  Com- 
modianus,  has  formed  his  style  on  Horace  in  his  lyrical 
pieces,  and  he  shows  an  intimate  acquaintance  with 
Virgil.  The  first  section  of  his  lyrical  poems,  entitled 
CatJianerinon,  consists  of  hymns  for  cockcrow  and 
matins,  before  dinner  and  after  it,  at  the  lighting  of 
lamps  and  at  bedtime,  at  the  beginning  of  a  fast  and 
at  its  conclusion,  a  hymn  that  may  be  sung  at  any 
hour,  a  funeral  hymn,  hymns  for  Christmas-day  and 
the  Epiphany.  The  second  section  is  called  Peri- 
stephanoUy  that  is,  "About  the  (martyrs')  crowns."  It 
consists  of  fourteen  hymns  or  poems  on  the  Spanish 
and  some  other  martyrs.  Many  of  the  poems  were 
written  specially  for  the  festivals  of  the  martyrs  com- 
memorated. The  Spaniards  that  he  celebrates  by 
special  poems  are  Emetherius  and  Chelidonius  of 
Calahorra,   Vincent   of    Zaragoza    and    Valencia,    the 

Cambridge.  This  MS.  was  lent  by  Dr.  Whewell  to  Cardinal  Pitra, 
who  went  back  to  the  theory  of  the  authorship  of  Juvencus.  At  present 
the  poem  is  supposed  to  have  been  written  by  Cyprian,  Bishop  of 
Toulon,  in  the  sixth  century.  As  it  extends  from  the  beginning  of 
Genesis  to  the  end  of  the  Book  of  Judges,  it  is  known  by  the  name  of 
the  Heptateuch.  See  "The  Latin  Heptateuch  Critically  Reviewed," 
by  John  E.  B.  Mayor,  M.A.,  Professor  of  Latin  in  the  University  of 
Cambridge.     Cambridge  University  Press,  1889. 


<S6         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

eighteen  martyrs  of  Zaragoza,  Eulalia  of  Merida 
Friictuosus,  Augurius  and  Eulogiiis  of  Tarragona. 
The  next  division  of  his  poems  is  doctrinal  and  con- 
troversial. The  first  section  of  this  division  is  called 
Apotheosisy  by  which  word  is  meant  no  more  than  the 
Divine  nature ;  the  second,  Hamartigeniay  that  is,  ^'  On 
the  origin  of  sin,"  and  the  third,  Contra  Symmachum. 
The  Apotheosis  contains  arguments  against  the  Patri- 
passian  heresy ;  against  the  Sabellians,  whom  he  calls 
Unionites ;  against  Judaism ;  against  the  heresy  which 
regarded  Christ  only  as  a  man,  which  he  calls  by  the 
curious  title  of  the  heresy  of  the  Hoimmcionitce  ;  against 
the  Docetae,  whom  he  calls  Phantas7natici ;  and  on  the 
nature  of  the  soul  and  of  the  resurrection  of  the  flesh. 
The  Harnartigenia  is  directed  against  Marcion,  and 
argues"  for  the  unity  of  the  Godhead  in  opposition  to 
the  hypothesis  of  two  Gods.  The  Christian  doctrine 
of  Satan,  a  fallen  creature,  is  represented  as  accounting 
for  the  fact  of  sin  far  better  than  the  theory  of  an 
independent  evil  power.  Man  has  the  gift  of  free  will, 
and  this  involves  the  possibility  of  choosing  evil  instead 
of  good,  under  Satanic  leading.  Those  who  choose 
evil  are  punished  by  hell ;  those  who  seek  good  are 
received  into  Paradise — the  dwellers  in  each  of  which 
places  are  visible  to  those  in  the  other.  The  treatise 
against  Symmachus  consists  of  two  books.  Sym- 
machus  had  proposed  the  re-erection  of  the  altar  of 
Victory  in  the  Roman  Senate-house  in  384,  and  his 
proposal  was  being  again  pressed  twenty  years  later,  in 
the  reign  of  Arcadius  and  Honorius ;  this  occasioned 
the  composition  of  Prudentius'  poem.  He  passes  in 
review   the   various    heathen    gods,    Saturn,   Jupiter, 


CHURCHMEN  OF  THE  FOURTH  CENTURY.      87 

Mercury,  Priapus,  Hercules,  Bacchus,  Mars,  Juno, 
Venus,  Cybele,  and  ridicules  their  characters.  Next 
he  denounces  the  worship  of  the  images  of  Rome, 
Augustus,  Livia,  Hadrian,  Antinous,  and  the  adoration 
of  the  sun  and  moon  and  the  infernal  gods.  Then  he 
turns  to  the  power  of  the  Cross,  under  which  Con- 
stantine  conquered,  and  the  conversion  of  the  majority 
of  the  Senate  to  Christianity.  In  the  second  book  he 
meets  the  special  arguments  of  Symmachus  that  the 
Romans  had  owed,  and  would  owe,  so  much  to  Victory 
that  she  ought  to  be  worshipped;  that  the  Romans 
ought  to  follow  the  customs  of  their  ancestors ;  that 
Victory  was  the  genius  appointed  by  fate  for  Rome ; 
that  it  was  the  old  Roman  gods  that  had  given  success 
to  Rome,  and  had  driven  Hannibal  from  Italy  and  the 
Gauls  from  the  Capitol ;  that  there  ought  to  be  liberty 
of  worship ;  that  a  famine  had  followed  the  abolition  of 
the  privileges  of  the  Vestal  Virgins.  The  poem  ends 
with  an  appeal  to  the  Emperor  to  abolish  the  games. 

There  is  a  third  class  of  Prudentius'  poems  which 
are  much  more  modern  in  character,  and  almost  anti- 
cipate some  of  Spenser's  conceits  and  Bunyan's  per- 
sonifications. It  is  called  Psychoniachiay  or  ^^  Combat 
of  the  Soul,"  and  represents  battles  between  Faith  and 
Idolatry,  Modesty  and  Lust,  Patience  and  Anger,  Pride 
and  Humility,  Luxury  and  Sobriety,  Love  of  Money  and 
Modest  Content,  Harmony  and  Discord.  Harmony  is 
helped  by  Faith,  and  Faith  and  Harmony  then  com- 
bine to  build  the  palace  described  in  the  Book  of  the 
Revelation,  which  becomes  the  abode  of  Wisdom.^ 

1  A  series  of  verses  on  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  descriptive 
apparently  of  some  paintings,   are  also  attributed  to  Prudentius,  but 


88  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

Prudentius'  reference  in  the  Libri  conii'a  Syimnachuin 
to  the  battle  of  Polientia  shows  that  he  Hved  beyond 
the  year  403. 

There  were  two  Spaniards  who  Hved  at  the  end  of 
the  fourth  century  whose  names  must  not  be  omitted 
though  they  Hved  out  of  Spain,  for  they  affected  in 
different  degrees  the  fate  of  the  whole  Western  Church. 
These  are  Damasus,  who  was  elected  Bishop  of  Rome 
in  succession  to  Liberius  in  the  year  366,  and  Theo- 
dosius  the  Emperor. 

In  the  struggle  between  Liberius  and  the  Anti-Pope 
Felix,  Damasus  appears  to  have  temporised,  and  had 
taken  part  with  each  in  turn.  On  the  See  being 
vacated  by  Liberius'  death,  Damasus  and  Ursicinus 
were  each  elected  to  the  dignity  by  opposing  factions. 
The  two  parties  closed  in  fierce  strife,  stormed  and  de- 
fended churches,  and  massacred  their  opponents  where- 
ever  they  had  the  opportunity,  without  paying  regard 
to  the  sacred  character  of  church  or  basilica,  till  the 
Emperor  was  obliged  to  appoint  a  non  -  Christian 
governor  of  Rome  to  put  down  the  tumults  which 
stained  the  city  with  blood.  Damasus  emerged  suc- 
cessful from  the  strife.  As  soon  as  he  became  Pope, 
he  resolutely  took  his  stand  as  a  supporter  of  ortho- 
doxy, a  promoter  of  Papal  authority,  and  a  patron  of 
the  monastic  party  in  the  Western  Church.  He  made 
the  ascetic  Jerome  his  secretary,  and  flattered  him  by 
appealing  to  his  well-known  learning  for  explanations 
of  Scriptural  difficulties.  Jerome  became  his  attached 
friend,  and  commends  him  as  an  advocate  of  celibacy, 

their  authenticity  is  uncertain.     They  are  called  Diptychon  or  Ditto- 
chieon. 


CHURCHMEN  OF  THE  FOURTH  CENTURY.      89 

"  who  wrote  both  poems  and  prose  in  favour  of  vir- 
ginity." Damasus  may  have  brought  with  him  from 
Spain  his  tendency  to  monasticism,  or  he  may  have 
adopted  it  as  the  representative  of  that  party  in  Rome 
to  which  Jerome's  correspondents  Marcella,  Paula, 
Blesilla,  and  Eustochium  belonged.  Whether  it  were 
the  traditions  of  the  Council  of  Elvira  or  the  imperious 
exhortations  of  his  secretary  which  led  him  to  assume 
the  position  which  he  adopted,  the  fact  of  his  adopting 
it,  combined  with  Gratian's  law  of  the  year  378* 
extending  the  authority  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome  to  the 
provinces,  had  its  effect  upon  the  whole  Western 
world.  Milman  fixes  on  the  pontificate  of  Damasus 
as  an  epoch  in  which  three  great  changes  commenced. 
It  was  the  starting-point  of  the  Papacy  in  its  progress 
towards  sovereignty;  in  it  monasticism  sprang  into 
an  importance  previously  unknown  ;  the  possession  of 
its  own  Latin  Bible  in  Jerome's  translation  gave  a 
sense  of  Latin,  as  distinct  from  Catholic,  unity,  which 
was  pregnant  of  results.  Damasus  died  at  the  end  of 
384,  and  was  succeeded  in  his  See  and  in  his  policy  by 
Siricius,  whom  we  shall  find  addressing  to  Himerius, 
Bishop  of  Tarragona,  the  first  of  the  series  of  Decretal 
Letters  which  is  supposed  to  be  genuine. 

The  other  Spaniard  who  lived  out  of  Spain  had  still 
more  influence  on  the  world's  destinies.  Theodosius  L 
was  born  in  346  at  a  town  in  Spain  called  Cauca.  He 
was  the  son  of  an  elder  Theodosius,  an  able  officer, 
who  was  treacherously  executed  for  fear  of  his  aiming 
at  the  Empire.  Theodosius,  the  son,  had  fought  bravely 
and  successfully  in  Britain  and  in  Germany,  and  on  his 
father's  death,  to  avoid  sharing  his  fate,  he  retired  to 


90  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

his  native  place,  and  there  Hved  in  obscurity  for  three 
years.  In  the  year  379  Gratian  summoned  him  from 
Spain  and  appointed  him  co-Emperor  with  himself. 
He  took  up  his  residence  at  Thessalonica,  and  there, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  following  year,  he  was  baptized 
by  Bishop  Ascolius.  From  this  time  forward,  Theo- 
dosius'  ecclesiastical  policy  was  unwavering  in  its 
tendency,  and  carried  out  with  the  resolution  of  a 
soldier  and  the  uncompromising  sternness  of  a  religious 
Spaniard.  He  determined  to  put  down  Paganism  and 
heresy,  and  to  give  the  support  of  the  secular  arm  to 
the  Orthodox  Church.  Paganism  was  now  nodding  to 
its  fall,  and  did  not  require  any  direct  legislation  or 
action  of  the  executive  to  bring  it  to  the  ground.  The 
monks,  who  in  the  East  were  established  in  great 
numbers,  were  allowed  their  way.  They  organised 
mobs  for  the  destruction  of  heathen  temples,  and  the 
Emperor  stood  by  and  was  gratified  at  the  destruction 
being  effected  without  the  action  of  his  government. 
With  heresy  he  had  to  take  a  bolder  course.  Arianism 
was  at  the  time  dominant  in  the  Eastern  Empire,  and 
in  his  first  edict,  issued  in  the  second  year  of  his  reign, 
Theodosius  commanded  his  subjects  to  conform  to  the 
faith  whicli  S.  Peter  had  preached,  and  which  Damasus 
of  Rome  and  Peter  of  Alexandria  were  then  preaching, 
which  faith  was  the  equality  of  the  three  Persons  of 
the  Holy  Trinity,  the  maintainers  of  which  doctrine 
were  alone  worthy  to  be  called  Catholic  Christians. 
At  the  end  of  the  same  year  he  made  his  entry  into 
Constantinople,  dispossessed  the  Arian  bishop,  and 
substituted  Gregory  of  Nazianzus  in  his  place.  The 
next    year   he  published   a    law    commanding    all  the 


CHURCHMEN  OF  THE  FOURTH  CENTURY.       91 

churches  to  be .  given  up  to  the  orthodox,  and  for- 
bidding the  Arians,  Photinians,  and  Eunomians  to  meet 
for  public  worship.!  The  Macedonians  and  Apolli- 
narians  were  treated  in  the  same  way.^  Theodosius' 
chief  adviser  was  Ambrose  of  Milan,  and  Gregory  of 
Nazianzus  seems  also  to  have  influenced  him  through 
Nectarius  of  Constantinople.  The  opponents  of  the 
Orthodox  Church  being  thus  put  down,  the  Emperor 
passed  a  number  of  laws  elevating  the  position  of  the 
clergy  and  giving  secular  privileges  to  the  bishops. 
It  has  been  observed  that  Theodosius  was  a  thorough 
Spaniard  in  his  courage,  which  made  him  a  victorious 
general ;  in  his  fits  of  rage,  which  caused  the  massacre 
of  Thessalonica,  and  brought  upon  him  the  well-known 
rebuke  of  Ambrose ;  and  in  his  devotion  to  the  cause 
of  the  Church  and  his  submission  to  her  prelates.  He 
died  A.D.  395. 

Contemporary  with  Theodosius  was  another  Spanish 
Emperor — a  Spaniard  both  by  birth  and  character — 
Maximus  the  Usurper,  A.D.  383-385,  whose  history, 
so  far  as  Spain  is  concerned,  is  mixed  up  with  that  of 
PriscilHan. 

^  Cod.  Theod.,  xvi.  i,  3,  v.  6-8. 
2  Ibid.,  xvi.  V.  14. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

PRISCILLIANISM. 

Priscillianism  at  the  end  of  the  fourth  century,  and 
Adoptionism  in  the  eighth  century,  are  the  two  spe- 
cially Spanish  heresies.  Yet  PriscilHanism,  though 
taking  its  form  in  Spain,  can  hardly  be  said  to  have 
derived  its  origin  in  that  country.  It  was  apparently 
a  theosophy  compounded  of  Gnostic,  Manichean,  and 
Docetic  elements.  With  the  Manichees,  Priscillianists 
held  an  antagonistic  duaHsm,  represented  by  light  and 
darkness,  materialism  and  spirituality.  The  Gnostic 
theories  respecting  the  creation  of  the  universe  were 
revived,  and  astrological  speculations  were  added  to 
them  ;  each  member  of  the  human  body  being  sup- 
posed to  be  under  the  special  control  of  the  several 
signs  of  the  zodiac — the  head  ruled  by  Aries,  the  neck 
by  Taurus,  the  shoulders  by  Gemini,  the  breast  by 
Cancer.  The  Old  Testament  Scriptures  were  allego- 
rised. The  body  assumed  by  Christ  was  counted  a 
phantasm.  The  feast  days  of  the  Church  were  se- 
lected as  fast  days,  especially  Christmas- day,  on  which 
Christ  assumed  a  material  body,  or  the  appearance  of 
it.  Abhorrence  of  matter  led,  as  it  had  led  before, 
into  extreme  asceticism,  readily  exchanged,  through 
contempt  of  matter,  for  wild  licentiousness.  The  Pris- 
cillianists were  the  first  religionists  who  justified  lying, 

92 


PRISCILLIANISM.  93 

on  the  principle  that  the  end  justified  the  means,  and 
that  they  were  not  bound  to  truth  except  in  deaUng 
with  one  another.  Those  whom  they  counted  to  be 
heretics  had  not  a  right  to  truth  at  their  hands,  and 
falsehood  to  them  was  justifiable  if  the  end  was  good.^ 
The  first  propagator  of  this  system  was  one  Mark, 
an  Egyptian,  who  is  said  to  have  come  from  Memphis 
into  Spain,  and  there  converted  a  Spanish  woman 
named  Agape  and  a  rhetorician  called  Helpidius.  They 
in  turn  made  a  convert  of  PriscilHan,  a  man  of  good 
moral  character,  great  enthusiasm,  learning,  and  elo- 

^  S.  Augustine  describes  the  Priscillianists  as  follows  : — "The  Pds- 
cillianists,  established  by  PriscilHan  in  Spain,  are  in  the  main  followers 
of  the  Gnostics  and  Manicheans,  whoje  doctrines  they  combine ;  but 
they  are  a  sink  into  which  foulness  has  flowed  from  other  heresies, 
making  a  horrible  confusion.  To  hide  these  impurities,  they  make 
the  following  one  of  their  dogmas,  'Swear  and  forswear,  but  do  not 
betray  our  secret'  {Jura^  perjiira^  secretum  prodere  noli).  They  say 
that  souls  are  of  the  same  nature  and  substance  as  God,  and  that  in 
order  to  perform  some  voluntary  work  on  earth,  they  descend  through 
the  seven  heavens  by  certain  gradations,  and  so  come  into  contact  with 
an  evil  principle,  by  whom  the  world  v^^as  made,  who  distributes  them 
among  various  fleshly  bodies.  And  they  hold  that  men  are  bound  up 
by  fate  with  stars,  and  even  our  bodies  are  composed  according  to  the 
twelve  signs  of  the  zodiac  (like  in  this  to  those  called  physical  philo- 
sophers), placing  Aries  in  the  head,  Taurus  in  the  neck,  Gemini  in  the 
shoulders,  Cancer  in  the  breast,  and  going  through  all  the  other  signs 
one  by  one  till  they  reach  the  feet,  which  they  give  to  Pisces,  which 
the  astrologers  call  the  last  of  the  signs.  The  heresy  is  made  up  of 
fanciful  ideas,  foolish  or  sacrilegious,  which  it  is  not  worth  while  to 
discuss.  They  will  not  eat  flesh  as  being  unclean  food  ;  they  separate 
married  people,  without  the  consent  of  one  of  the  parties,  whenever 
they  can ;  for  they  attribute  the  formation  of  all  flesh  not  to  the  great 
and  true  God,  but  to  evil  angels.  They  are  cleverer  than  the  Mani- 
cheans in  this,  that  they  do  not  reject  the  Scriptures,  but  read  them 
together  with  apocryphal  writings,  and  acknowledge  their  authority, 
but  change  whatever  in  Holy  Scripture  is  against  their  erroneous  views 
into  their  own  sense  by  an  allegorising  process.  On  the  subject  of 
Christ's  nature  they  are  Sabellians,  saying  that  the  Son,  the  Father, 
and  the  Holy  Spirit  are  in  all  respects  one  and  the  same  "  {^De  Hceres., 
Ixx.,  Op.,  torn.  viii.  p.  44,  ed.  Migne). 


94  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

quence,  with  a  strong  love  of  acquiring  knowledge  and 
devoted  to  subtle  inquiry.  Priscillian  was  a  wealthy 
man,  well  known,  and  of  great  influence.  His  adop- 
tion of  the  new  views  made  them  popular,  and  very 
soon  they  were  embraced  by  two  bishops — Instantius 
and  Salvian.  Hyginus,  or  Ad^^ginus,  Bishop  of  Cor- 
dova, the  successor  of  Hosius,  was  the  first  to  move 
in  opposition  to  the  new  sect.  He  wrote  to  Idacius,^ 
Metropolitan  of  Merida,  and  urged  him  to  take  steps 
in  defence  of  the  faith.  Idacius  answered  to  the  call 
made  upon  him  with  a  vehemence  which  shocked 
Hyginus  and  made  him  recoil.  His  object  had  been 
to  recall  those  who  were  gone  astray.  Idacius  was 
bent  on  prosecuting  and  punishing  offenders.  Hyginus 
felt  bound  to  resist  the  violence  of  his  colleague,  and 
by  degrees  became  the  apologist  for  the  heresy  which 
he  had  been  the  first  to  denounce.  It  was  determined 
to  hold  a  Synod  at  Zaragoza  to  consider  the  course 
that  should  be  adopted.  It  met  in  the  year  380,  and 
was  composed  of  bishops  of  Spain  and  Aquitaine.  The 
Priscilhanist  bishops  were  summoned  to  attend,  but 
knowing  themselves  to  be  in  a  hopeless  minority, 
they  absented  themselves,  and  in  their  absence  were 
condemned.  Instantius  and  Salvian  were  deposed, 
and  two  laymen,  Helpidius  and  Priscillian,  were  excom- 
municated. Ithacius,  Bishop  of  Ossonuba  or  Sossuba, 
was  commissioned  to  promulgate  the  decrees  of  the 
Synod,  and  to  declare  Hyginus  of  Cordova  also  ex- 
communicate for  the  favour  that  he  had  shown  to  the 

1  Idacius  is  spelt  Ilydalius  by  Priscillian  himself.  See  Scliepss^ 
Priscilliani  qua  siipersunt.  Prague  and  Vienna,  1S89.  These  Remains 
contain  none  of  the  heresies  attributed  to  the  Priscillianists  by  S. 
Augustine  or  Leo. 


PKISCILLIANISM.  95 

heretics.  At  the  same  Synod  eight  canons  were  passed 
directed  against  PriscilHanist  practices: — (i.)  Women 
were  not  to  attend  conventicles ;  (2.)  No  one  should 
give  up  going  to  church  in  Lent  and  attend  a  conven- 
ticlc;  nor  fast  on  Sunday ;  (3.)  Whoever  failed  to 
consume  the  Holy  Eucharist  in  church  should  be 
anathema ;  (4.)  Every  one  was  to  go  to  church  daily 
from  December  17  to  the  Feast  of  the  Epiphany,  and 
they  were  not  to  go  with  bare  feet;  (5.)  A  person 
excommunicated  by  one  bishop  was  not  to  be  received 
by  another ;  (6.)  A  clergyman  becoming  a  monk  on 
the  plea  of  the  monastic  being  a  higher  life  was  to  be 
excommunicated;  (7.)  No  one  should  profess  himself 
a  teacher  without  being  duly  authorised ;  (8.)  No 
woman  should  take  vows  of  virginity  under  forty  years 
of  age.  These  canons  give  us  a  blurred  picture  of  the 
Priscillianists  holding  conventicles  in  opposition  to  the 
Church,  setting  themselves  up  as  teachers  without  her 
authority,  fasting  when  churchmen  feasted,  refusing  to 
consume  the  sacred  elements  in  church,  advocating  the 
ascetic  life,  run  after  by  enthusiastic  ladies,  who  took 
vows  while  still  quite  young ;  if  forbidden  the  exercise 
of  the  ministry  by  one  bishop,  seeking  permission  to 
officiate  in  the  diocese  of  another. 

The  PrisciUianists  were  not  terrified  by  the  action 
taken  at  the  Synod  of  Zaragoza.  They  determined  to 
strengthen  their  own  ranks,  and  in  order  to  do  this 
effectually,  their  chief,  Priscillian,  a  layman  just  excom- 
municated by  the  Synod,  was  consecrated  Bishop  of 
Avila  by  Instantius  and  Salvian.  The  opposite  party 
appealed  for  aid  to  the  civil  power.  Gratian  in  reply 
issued  an  edict  forbidding  the  Priscillianists  the  use  of 


96  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

the  churches  and  pronouncing  upon  them  the  doom  of 
banishment     The  PriscilHanists  determined  on  invok- 
ing the  aid  of  the  Churches  beyond  the   boundaries 
of  Spain.      Ambrose  of  Milan  and  Damasus  of  Rome 
were  the  most  prominent   churchmen  of  Europe,  as 
there  was  at  this  time  no  leading  prelate  of  France. 
Instantius,  Salvian,  and  Priscillian,  therefore,   set  off 
to  lay  their  case  before  them.     They  passed  through 
Aquitaine,  making  proselytes  as  they  went.  At  Bordeaux 
Bishop  Delphinus  repulsed  them,  but  they  succeeded  in 
attaching  a  lady  named  Euchrocia  so  warmly  to  their 
cause,  that  she  joined  them  on  their  journey  with  her 
daughter    Procula,   and    afterwards   suffered    death   in 
their  behalf     Neither  Damasus  nor  Ambrose  would 
listen  to  them.     Like  Idacius  and  Ithacius,  therefore, 
they  turned  for  help   to  the  civil  power.     They  won 
over  Macedonius,  a  man  of  influence  in  Gratian's  court, 
and    by  his  means  obtained  a  rescript  ordering  that 
they  should  be  reinstated.     They  returned  to  Spain, 
and  not  only  recovered  their  lost  churches  and  dioceses, 
but  found  themselves  in  a  position  to  take  the  aggres- 
sive.    Ithacius,  in  turn,  had  to  fly  the  country  as  a 
disturber  of  the  public  peace.     He  escaped  to  Treves, 
the  residence  of  Gregory,  the  prefect  of  Gaul  and  Spain, 
and  laid  his  case  before  him.    It  was  determined  that  a 
judicial  examination  must  be  held,  and  this  was  ordered 
to  take  place  before  the  (civil)  Vicar  of  Spain,  whose 
name  was  Volventius.     Ithacius  did  not  dare  to  trust 
himself  in  Spain,  and  remained  at  Treves,  where  the 
bishop  and  the  prefect  were  both  in  his  favour.     At 
this  conjuncture,  a  revolution  overthrew  Gratian  and 
raised   Maximus  to  the  imperial   dignity.      Maximus, 


PRISCILLIANISM.  97 

being  himself  a  Spaniard,  was  interested  in  Spanish 
affairs,  and  it  was  his  policy  to  be  the  patron  of  the 
orthodox  party.  When,  therefore,  he  came  to  Treves 
in  384,  and  Ithacius  appealed  to  him,  the  tables  were 
once  more  turned.  Ithacius,  but  lately  the  defendant, 
became  again  the  prosecutor,  and  a  Synod  was  sum- 
moned at  Bordeaux  to  determine  the  question  between 
him  and  the  Priscillianists.  The  Synod  was  held  in 
385.  Instantius  made  his  defence,  which  was  also  the 
defence  of  his  party.  He  was  condemned  and  deposed. 
Priscillian,  finding  himself  in  a  minority,  appealed  to  the 
Emperor,  and  his  appeal  was  carried  before  Maximus. 
S.  Martin  of  Tours  was  at  the  moment  at  Treves,  and 
as  long  as  he  was  present  no  measures  were  taken,  but 
on  his  leaving  the  city,  Ithacius'  party,  reinforced  by 
two  bishops  named  Magnus  and  Rufus,  persuaded  the 
Emperor  to  pass  sentence  on  the  Priscillianists.  It 
was  Maximus'  policy  to  cover  his  usurpation  by  a 
profession  of  orthodoxy,  and  he  was  not  unwilling 
to  show  himself  to  the  world  as  its  champion  by  an 
act  then  first  perpetrated,  but  too  often  afterwards 
repeated.  Bishop  Priscillian,  two  presbyters  named 
FeHcissimus  and  Armenius,  two  deacons,  Asarinus  and 
Aurelius,  a  layman,  who  was  also  a  poet,  called  Latro- 
nianus,  and  the  wealthy  lady  Euchrocia,  were  con- 
demned and  beheaded.  Bishop  Instantius  and  a  man 
named  Tiberianus  were  banished  to  the  Scilly  Islands, 
and  some  others  were  punished  in  like  manner.  Ithacius' 
violence  overshot  its  mark.  Theognistes  at  Treves, 
Ambrose  of  Milan,  and  Martin  of  Tours  separated 
themselves  from  communion  with  the  Ithacians.  In 
Spain  Priscillian  was  revered  as  a  saint  and  martyr. 


98  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

and  Priscillianists  so  increased  in  number  as  almost 
to  take  possession  of  Galicia.  Maximus  resolved  to 
crush  them  by  means  of  commissioners  sent  into  Spain 
for  the  purpose.  Martin  of  Tours  besought  the  Emperor 
to  refrain  from  further  severities.  Maximus  made  it  a 
condition  of  listening  to  his  intercession  on  that  subject 
and  on  another  for  which  he  had  come  to  petition  the 
Emperor,  that  he  should  communicate  with  the  Ithacians. 
Ambrose  had  refused  under  any  circumstances  to  do 
so,  but  Martin  yielded  and  took  part  with  the  Itha- 
cian  bishops  in  consecrating  Felix  Bishop  of  Treves. 
In  consideration  of  this  concession  the  imperial  com- 
mission was  countermanded. 

We  have  here  a  rehearsal,  on  a  small  scale,  of 
what  was  hereafter  to  make  Spain  a  shame  among 
Christian  nations.  The  Church,  not  content  with 
spiritual  punishments,  hands  over  the  heretics  to  be 
put  to  death  by  the  civil  power,  and  Ithacius  antici- 
pates the  future  Inquisitor.  The  rest  of  the  Christian 
world,  represented  by  Ambrose  and  Martin  (but  not, 
so  far  as  we  read,  by  Damasus),  vainly  endeavour  to 
prevent  the  crime  about  to  be  perpetrated  in  the  name 
of  Christ,  and  exclaim  against  it  when  accomplished. 
But  the  example  has  been  set,  and  it  will  be  followed. 
It  is  some  satisfaction  to  know  that  both  Idacius  and 
Ithacius  had  to  resign  or  were  deprived  of  their 
bishoprics,  and,  according  to  the  testimony  of  Isidore, 
who  lived  about  200  years  after  these  events,  Idacius 
was  banished. 

Priscillianism  could  not  openly  resist  the  master  of 
a  hundred  legions,  but  it  continued  to  exist  as  a  secret 
sect,  and,  for  its  self-defence,  it  adopted  the  principle 


PRISCILLIANISM.  99 

that  falsehood  was  permissible  in  a  man  who  had 
cause  to  conceal  his  religious  opinions — **  ad  occultan- 
dam  religionem  religiosos  debere  mentiri."  Against 
this  view,  afterwards  taken  by  other  religionists/ 
Augustine  wrote  a  treatise  to  which  he  gave  the  name 
Contra  MendaciwnP'  The  orthodox,  angry  at  being 
baffled  by  the  deceit  of  the  sectarians,  were  tempted  to 
think  that  they  might  meet  them  with  like  weapons. 
Augustine  earnestly  protests  against  any  such  idea. 
It  is  doing  evil  that  good  may  come,  and  it  would  be 
equally  justifiable  to  meet  robbery  with  robbery  and 
sacrilege  with  sacrilege.  Their  justification  of  lying 
was  the  point  in  which  Priscilhanists  were  worse  than 
any  other  heretics.  They  justified  it  by  saying  that 
they  had  the  truth  in  their  hearts  and  only  uttered 
what  was  false  with  their  lips ;  but,  says  S.  Augustine, 
on  that  principle  no  martyr  need  have  suffered  death ; 
they  might  have  declared  themselves  Pagans,  keeping 
the  truth  concealed  in  their  hearts,  which  in  matter  of 
fact  those  that  denied  Christ  did.  Dictinnius,  Pris- 
cillianist  Bishop  of  Astorga,  had  written  a  book  called 
Libra^  in  which  he  attempted  to  prove  the  right  of 
employing  falsehood  from  examples  in  the  Bible.  S. 
Augustine  discusses  many  of  these,  and  concludes  that 
either  they  are  not  cases  of  lying,  or,  if  they  are,  they 

^  See  S.  Alfonso  de'  Liguori's  Theologia  Moralis,  lib.  iv.,  and  the 
Treatise  of  Equivocation  approved  by  Garnet  and  Blackwell. 

2  Op.,  vi.  518,  ed.  Migne. 

2  S.  Augustine  says  that  it  was  so  called  because  divided  into  twelve 
qtKzstiones,  as  the  Roman  liht'a  or  pound  was  divided  into  twelve 
ounces,  and  that  it  was  regarded  by  the  Priscillianists  as  "more 
precious  than  many  thousand  pounds  of  gold." — Contr,  Afend.,  5. 
Possibly  there  is  a  play  upon  the  word,  which  means  also  a  pair  of 
scales,  in  which  doctrine  might  be  weighed, 

H 


loo        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

are  not  intended  for  our  imitation.  Lying,  he  insists, 
is  no  more  permissible  than  any  other  known  sin,  and 
those  Cathohcs  who  allowed  themselves  in  falsehood 
for  the  sake  of  discovering  the  intrigues  of  the  Pris- 
cillianists  were  more  guilty  than  the  Priscillianists 
themselves ;  if  the  heresy  could  only  be  laid  bare  by 
deviating  from  strict  truthfulness,  let  it  remain  con- 
cealed ;  but  that  would  not  be  the  case,  for  its  charac- 
ter and  proceedings  might  be  learnt  from  the  converts 
made  from  it,  and  its  tenets  might  be  refuted  in  fair 
argument. 

The  same  cause  which  led  the  defeated  Priscillianists 
to  take  up  their  theory  of  untruthfulness  made  them 
also  adopt  the  practice  of  accepting  from  the  hands 
of  the  priests  the  consecrated  elements,  and  secretly 
refraining  from  consuming  them.  This  is  condemned 
as  a  sacrilege  in  one  of  the  canons  of  the  first  Council 
of  Toledo,  held  in  the  year  400. 

Fifteen  years  afterwards,  in  415,  Orosius^  found  it 
necessary  to  consult  S.  Augustine  about  the  Priscillianist 
tenets,  which  he  describes  in  a  manner  which  shows 
that  they  were  altogether  perplexing  and  unintelli- 
gible to  him. 2  S.  Augustine,  in  reply,  disproves  their 
doctrine  that  the  soul  of  man  was  consubstantial  with 
God,  but  passes  by  their  cosmical  and  astrological 
opinions,  probably  counting  them  undeserving  of  re- 
futation.^    To  Bishop  Cerctius  he  wrote  a  letter  point- 

^  Orosius  appears  to  have  been  a  native  of  Braga,  but  a  volume  of 
400  pages  folio  has  been  written  by  Dalmasses  y  Ros  to  prove  that 
he  was  born  in  Tarragona  (Barcelona,  1702). 

^  "  Consuliatio  sive  Commonitorium  Orosii  ad  Augustinum  de 
errore  Priscillianistarum  et  Origenistarum."  O/.  Aitgusihii,  torn.  viii. 
p.  666,  ed.  Migne. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  670. 


PRISCILLIANISM.  loi 

ing  out  the  worthlessness  of  the  apocryphal  Scriptures 
relied  on  by  the  Priscillianists,  and  especially  of  a 
hymn  which  they  said  was  the  hymn  which  our  Lord 
and  his  Apostles  sang  before  going  to  the  Mount  of 
Olives  (Matt.  xxvi.  30).^ 

In  the  year  444,  a  body  of  Priscillianist  schismatics 
was  found  to  be  in  existence  in  Rome,  and  was  con- 
demned by  a  Roman  Council  held  by  Leo  L  A  little 
later,  a  Bishop  Turribius,  said  to  be  successor  to  the 
Priscillianist  Dictinnius,  is  supposed  to  have  written  to 
consult  Leo  as  to  the  measures  he  should  take  to  cope 
with  the  sect,^  with  which  his  diocese  continued  to  be 
overrun,  though  Dictinnius  had  himself  conformed  to 
the  Catholic  faith.  The  reply  attributed  to  Leo  is  of 
much  value  for  the  determination  of  the  character  of 
the  Priscillianist  heresy.^  To  crush  it  finally,  the 
writer  is  made  to  advise  the  convocation  of  a  National 
Synod,  or,  if  there  were  obstacles  to  that  course,  of  a 
Provincial  Synod.  To  carry  out  this  supposed  in- 
struction of  Leo's,  two  anti-Priscillianist  Synods  are 
represented  as  having  been  held  in  the  year  447,  one 
in  Galicia,  at  Astorga  or  Celenas,  the  other  at  Toledo. 

^  Ep.  ccxxxvii.,  Op.,  torn.  ii.  p.  1034,  ed.  Migne. 

2  No  such  letter  of  Turribius  to  Leo  is  extant,  but  Morales  in  1577 
(Cor.  xi.  26)  published  a  letter  supposed  to  have  been  wriiten  by  him 
to  Bishops  Idatius  and  Cyronius  on  the  repression  of  Priscillianism, 
and  giving  some  information  respecting  his  own  life.  The  Bishop 
Idatius  here  mentioned  may  be  the  same  as  the  chronicler  ;  Cyronius 
cannot  be  identified.  The  letter  appears  to  be  written  by  a  layman  or 
presbyter,  not  by  a  bishop.  It  is  rejected  by  Baluzius  and  Hardouin 
as  spurious.  The  history  ordinarily  given  of  Turribius  is  derived  from 
that  letter,  and  is  therefore  without  foundation. 

^  Epist.  xciii.  in  Labbe  and  Cossart's  Councils.  Lucretius,  Metropo- 
litan of  Braga,  at  the  first  Council  of  Braga,  a.d,  561,  stated  in  Synod 
that  this  letter  was  addressed  by  Leo  (not  to  a  Bishop  Turribius,  but)  to 
a  Galician  Council  "  liy  the  hands  of  Tunilnus,  the  notary  of  his  See." 


I02         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

No  such  Synods  were  held,  but  there  exists  a  creed 
and  eighteen  anathemas  which  were  pubhshed  among 
the  Acts  of  the  first  Council  of  Toledo,  A.D.  400, 
though  they  could  not  have  been  issued  by  it.  Creed 
and  anathema  (whatever  is  their  date)  were  alike 
directed  against  Priscillianism,  and  had  no  other  con- 
troversial purpose ;  but  the  creed  incidentally  contained 
an  expression  which  preluded  to  a  battle  that  should 
be  waged  centuries  after  Priscillianism  was  forgotten. 
For  this  is  the  first  creed  in  which  the  formula  ''  Pro- 
ceeding from  the  Father  a/id  tJie  Son  "  occurs.^  It  was 
not  this  creed,  however,  that  raised  the  question 
which  has  since  divided  the  East  and  the  West,  but 
the  creed  of  the  so-called  Third  Council,  in  which  the 
words  ^^and  the  Son"  were  interpolated  into  the 
(Ecumenical  Creed  of  Nicsea  and  Constantinople.  The 
present  creed  was  an  original  composition  by  the 
members  of  the  Council  that  promulgated  it,  and  the 
offence  of  altering  an  (Ecumenical  symbol  was  not 
committed.  The  clauses  of  this  creed  which  deal 
with  Priscillianism  are  the  following : — (i.)  "And  the 
body  of  Christ  is  no  imaginary  one,  no  phantom,  but 
real  and  true ;  (2.)  We  believe  that  a  resurrection  of 
human  flesh  will  take  place,  and  we  teach  that  the 
human  soul  is  not  a  divine  substance  or  like  to  God, 
but  a  creature  made  by  the  Divine  will." 

The  eighteen  anathemas — too  accordant  with  the 
spirit  of  the  Spanish  Church— declare  accursed  all  who 
say  or  believe  (i.)  that  the  universe  is  not  created  by 

1  Or  shall  we  say  that  the  presence  of  these  words  indicates  that  the 
creed  and  anathemas  belong  to  a  later  date,  when  there  was  a  recru- 
descence of  Priscillianism,  and  the  first  Council  of  Braga  was  held  to 
condemn  it,  A.D.  561  ? 


PRISCILLIANISM.  103 

Almighty  God;  (2.)  that  the  Father  is  the  Son  and 
the  Holy  Ghost ;  (3.)  that  the  Son  is  the  Father  and 
the  Holy  Ghost ;  (4.)  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  the 
Father  and  the  Son;  (5.)  that  the  Son  took  flesh,  but 
not  a  human  soul ;  (6.)  that  Christ  is  incapable  of 
being  born;  (7.)  that  Christ's  godhead  is  capable  of 
suffering  a  change ;  (8.)  that  the  God  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament is  not  the  God  of  the  New  Testament ;  (9.) 
that  the  world  was  made  by  any  other  than  the  true 
God;  (10.)  that  there  is  no  resurrection  of  the  bod}^; 
(11.)  that  the  soul  of  man  is  part  of  God  and  of  His 
substance  ;  (12.)  that  there  are  other  than  the  Canoni- 
cal Scriptures  to  be  held  as  authoritative;  (13.)  that 
Christ  had  but  one  nature,  made  up  of  the  godhead  and 
manhood;  (14.)  that  anything  is  more  extensive  than 
the  Holy  Trinity ;  (15.)  that  astrology  and  MatJiesis  are 
to  be  believed  in;  (16.)  that  marriage  is  abominable; 
(17.)  that  flesh  is  to  be  abstained  from  as  abominable. 
The  eighteenth  anathema  declares  accursed  all  who 
follow  the  Priscillian  heresy  on  the  above  points,  or 
alter  the  baptismal  formula  (which  the  Priscillianists 
did  by  omitting  the  word  ''  and  "  from  the  clause  *^  of 
the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost "). 

The  first  Synod  of  Braga,  held  as  late  as  the  year 
563,  condemned  Priscillianism  in  similar  terms  and 
with  equal  severity,  and  after  that  time  it  is  heard  of 
no  more  as  a  living  heresy.^ 

^  Seventeen  anathemas  are  directed  against  Priscillianism  in  this 
Council  ;  they  condemn  Priscillianism  on  the  score  of  its  Sabellianism, 
Gnosticism,  Photinianism,  Marcionism,  Manichseism.  The  Council 
was  presided  over  by  Lucretius,  Metropolitan  of  Braga.  Strangely 
enough,  the  works  of  Priscillian,  discovered  by  Schepps  in  1885,  and 
published  in  1889,  do  not  contain  any  tenet  which  can  be  regarded  as 
Sabellian,    Gnostic,  Photinian,   Marcionite,  or  Manichgean,  and   they 


I04        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

The  "  Consultation  "  which,  as  we  have  seen,  Orosius 
laid  before  Augustine,  shows  that  Gahcia  was  troubled 
not  only  by  Priscilhanism  but  by  the  Origenistic  con- 
troversies. The  latter,  however,  were  but  the  echo  of 
the  storm  that  was  raging  in  the  East,  where  the  Arians 
were  claiming  Origen  as  their  progenitor,  and  the  Ortho- 
dox were  either,  with  Athanasian,  denying  their  right 
to  do  so,  or,  if  they  were  less  clear-sighted  or  less 
large-minded,  condemning  him  with  them.  Some 
travellers  brought  back  with  them  the  controversy  to 
Spain,  but  it  did  not  take  root  there.  The  necessity 
which  fell  upon  the  Peninsula  in  the  fifth  century  to 
resist  Arianism  proper  left  no  room  for  quarrels  over 
Origen's  doctrines,  which  were  little  known  in  the 
West.  Orosius  was  not  contented  with  consulting 
only  S.  Augustine.  He  extended  his  journey  to  Beth- 
lehem, taking  with  him  an  introduction  from  S.  Augus- 
tine to  the  other  great  oracle  of  the  Church  at  the  end 
of  the  fourth  and  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century, 
S.  Jerome,  who  was  well  versed  in  the  Origenistic 
question.       The    quarrel    between   Jerome   and   John, 

show  Priscillian  to  be  an  imitator,  if  not  a  follower  of,  Hilary  of 
Poitiers.  Was  it  later  Priscillianism  which  added  heresy  to  Priscil- 
lian's  crime  of  opposition  to  the  Spanish  hierarchy?  Yet  this  hypo- 
thesis would  hardly  account  for  the  representations  of  Orosius  and 
Augustine.  Probably  the  explanation  is  that  Priscillian's  theosophical 
works  are  still  undiscovered.  Yet  we  have  in  Schepps'  volume  his 
Apology  and  his  statement  of  doctrine  laid  before  Damasus.  In  this 
he  condemns  and  pronounces  anathema  on  the  Patripassians,  the 
Novatians,  the  Nicolaitans,  the  Sun-worshippers,  the  Planet-worship- 
pers, the  worshippers  of  Saclas,  Nebroel,  Samael,  Beelzebub,  Nebro- 
deus,  Belial,  Armazdel,  Mariame,  Joel,  Balsamus,  Barbilon,  the 
Docetse,  the  Manichaeans,  the  Ophites,  the  (Gnostic)  followers  of 
Saturninus  and  Basilides,  the  Arians,  the  Photinians.  Ought  not  the 
renunciation  of  so  many  heretics  to  have  secured  him  from  being  put 
to  death  himself  for  heresy  ?  How  could  such  grim  orthodoxy  have  led 
to  such  a  fate  ? 


PRISCILLIANISM.  105 

Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  involved  Orosius,  and  John  charged 
the  latter  with  blasphemy — an  accusation  which  arose 
from  the  fact  that  one  of  the  two  did  not  know  Greek 
and  the  other  did  not  know  Latin.  Orosius  set  off 
on  his  return  to  Spain,  carrying  with  him  the  alleged 
relics  of  S.  Stephen,  which  the  Church  of  Braga  coveted. 
On  his  way  he  put  in  at  Hippo  to  deliver  a  letter  of 
Jerome's  to  Augustine.  The  latter  was  at  the  time 
occupied  on  his  work  De  Civitate  Dei,  and  he  per- 
suaded the  Spanish  presbyter  to  remain  with  him  and 
write  a  history,  or  an  epitome  of  the  history,  of  the 
world,  which  might  serve  to  justify  the  assumptions 
made  in  the  De  Civitate.  Orosius,  proud  to  be  em- 
ployed as  a  fellow-workman  by  Augustine,  delayed  his 
journey  home  for  a  year,  and  in  that  time  wrote  the 
work  for  which  he  is  known.  It  does  not  profess  to 
be  original,  except  at  the  end,  where  the  author  relates 
contemporary  events,  but  it  is  valuable  as  a  compilation 
from  historians,  secular  and  sacred,  and  at  one  time 
enjoyed  a  high  degree  of  popularity.^  Orosius,  at  the 
end  of  the  year,  set  sail  for  Spain,  but  he  did  not  pro- 
ceed farther  than  Minorca,  from  whence,  terrified  by 
the  disturbances  which  were  taking  place  in  Spain,  he 
returned  to  Africa  in  the  year  417. 

We  may  pause  here  to  take  a  retrospect  of  the 
Church  of  Spain  during  the  first  four  centuries,  before 

^  The  work  in  later  times  became  known  by  the  name  of  Ormesta 
(mundi),  a  title  which,  under  its  various  forms  of  Ormista,  Ormesia, 
Hormesta,  Hormista,  caused  much  difficulty  and  many  conjectures 
to  later  writers.  The  most  likely  explanation  is  that  it  represents  in 
a  contracted  form  Or.  m.  ista.,  i.e.,  "  Orosii  mundi  istoria."  Phillott, 
in  "Dictionary  of  Christian  Biography." 


io6        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

it  entered  upon  the  new  phase  of  existence  which  was 
awaiting  it  in  the  fifth  century.  Christianity,  whose 
cradle  was  in  the  East,  was  first  preached  in  the  great 
Eastern  cities,  in  Jerusalem,  Damascus,  Antioch,  Ephe- 
sus,  Philippi,  Thessalonica,  Athens,  and  Corinth.  From 
the  East  it  passed  westward  to  Italy,  and  in  Italy  to 
Rome,  the  then  centre  of  the  world.  Thence  it  natu- 
rally spread  to  Gaul,  and  from  Gaul  to  the  right  hand 
and  to  the  left,  over  the  Pyrenees  to  Spain,  across  the 
Channel  to  Britain.  But  who  were  the  instruments 
for  conveying  the  Word  of  Life  to  each  of  these  coun- 
tries we  do  not  know.  The  Gospel  came  to  them,  but 
it  came  not  with  observation.  The  traditions  of  the 
Spanish  Church  do  not  go  back  further  than  the 
middle  of  the  third  century,  and  all  that  is  reported 
before  that  time  is  legendary,  with  the  possible  excep- 
tion of  the  visit  of  S.  Paul  to  the  Peninsula.  But  though 
we  cannot  name  the  person  through  whom  Christianity 
was  introduced  and  propagated,  we  are  able  to  see 
that  it  spread  fast.  The  original  inhabitants  of  Spain, 
Iberians  and  Celts,  had  given  themselves  up  to  their 
Roman  masters,  and  were  proud  to  be  provincialised. 
They  readily  exchanged  their  language  for  Latin,  and 
the  thoughts  and  beliefs  of  the  Capitol  became  the 
thoughts  and  beliefs  of  Spain.  There  were  still  Pagans 
in  the  fourth  century  in  the  Peninsula,  as  there  were 
Pagans  in  Rome,  but  by  degrees  Spanish  Paganism 
died  out,  hardly  waiting  for  the  stern  measures  of 
Theodosius  to  consummate  its  extinction,  and  Spain 
became  a  Christian  country. 

The  doctrines  of  the  Church  of  Spain  were  the  same 
as  those  held  by  the  Church  Catholic  in  the  first  four 


PRISCILLIANISM.  toy 

centuries,  that  is,  they  were  those  Christian  truths 
which  are  embodied  in  the  creeds.  Towards  the  end 
of  the  fourth  century  the  veneration  naturally  felt  for 
those  who  had  died  as  martyrs  for  the  faith  led  to  an 
excessive  regard  being  paid  to  them,  and  an  over- 
estimate of  the  value  of  the  unmarried  life  was  growing 
up.  These  two  tendencies  caused  future  evils  in  those 
directions,  but  up  to  this  time  none  of  those  super- 
stitions which  disfigured  Mediaeval  Christianity  had 
emerged,  except  to  be  condemned  as  specifically  the 
tenets  of  certain  heretical  bodies  external  to  the  Church. 
In  like  manner,  the  disciphne  of  the  Spanish  Church 
was  the  same  as  that  of  all  the  other  local  churches, 
which  together  formed  the  Church  Catholic,  that  is, 
the  Church  was  governed  and  officered  by  bishops, 
priests,  and  deacons,  with  some  inferior  ministers,  and 
those  bishops  who  presided  over  the  cities  of  chief 
authority  in  the  various  civil  districts  were  invested 
with  certain  powers  and  privileges  not  enjoyed  by  their 
brother  bishops,  who,  however,  were  in  all  essentials 
their  equals.  Each  of  the  five  provinces  had  its  metro- 
poHtan,  under  whom  each  Provincial  Church  formed,  Hke 
each  diocese,  a  whole  in  itself,  and  the  five  Provincial 
Churches  thus  resulting  were  combined  into  a  greater 
whole  by  their  union  into  a  National  Church,  the  con- 
trolling authority  over  which  resided  in  a  Synod  con- 
sisting of  representatives  from  each  province,  and 
therefore  from  the  entire  Church  of  the  nation.  In 
the  fourth  century  the  Catholic  Church  was  made  up 
of  fourteen  such  churches,  namely  :  (i.)  the  Roman 
Church,  comprising  the  southern  half  of  Italy,  and 
presided  over  by  the  Pope  of  Rome ;  (2.)  the  Italian 


io8         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

Church,  consisting  of  the  northern  half  of  Italy,  and 
presided  over  by  the  Exarch  ^  of  Milan ;  (3.)  the  African 
Church,  under  the  Primate  of  Carthage ;  (4.)  the 
Egyptian  Church,  under  the  Patriarch  of  Alexandria ; 
(5.)  the  ''Asiatic"  Church,  under  the  Exarch  of  Ephe- 
sus  ;  (6.)  the  ''  Oriental "  Church,  under  the  Patriarch 
of  Antioch ;  (7.)  the  Pontic  Church,  under  the  Exarch 
of  Csesarea ;  (8.)  the  Thracian  Church,  under  the 
Patriarch  of  Constantinople;  (9.)  the  Dacian  Church, 
under  the  Exarch  (apparently)  of  Sardica ;  (10.)  the 
Macedonian  Church,  under  the  Exarch  of  Thessa- 
lonica;  (il.)  the  Illyrian  Church,  under  the  Exarch 
of  Sirmium;  (12.)  the  Gallic  Church,  under  seventeen 
metropoHtans,  but  without  an  Exarch;  (13.)  Britain, 
under  its  metropolitans  (probably  five  in  number),  with 
no  Exarch  over  them;  (14.)  Spain,  under  the  metro- 
politans of  Seville,  Merida,  Braga,  Tarragona,  Cartha- 
gena,  but  with  no  Exarch.  Each  of  these  Churches 
was  self- governed,  and  did  not  recognise  in  any  prelate 
outside  its  own  borders  any  spiritual  authority  or  right 
of  oversight.  At  the  same  time,  when  any  heresy 
arose  with  which  the  native  Church  found  difficulty  in 
coping,  it  naturally  turned  for  help  to  some  neighbour- 
ing Church  which  appeared  likely  to  be  able  to  give 
the  required  assistance.  Thus  the  Church  of  Britain 
appealed,  not  in  vain,  to  Gaul  for  aid  in  putting  down 
Pelagianism;  the  Church  of  Spain,  as  we  have  seen, 
had  recourse  in  its  first  difficulty  to  the  Church  of 
Africa  and  its  great  pontiff  Cyprian.'  After  that  time 
it  had  within  its  own  ranks  the  wise  and  able  Hosius, 

^  The  titles  Exarch.,  Patriarch,  and  Primate  are  equivalent,  meaning 
the  chief  bishop  of  each  great  civil  division  of  the  Empire,  which  was 
called  a  "  Dicecese  "  (Sio/ATT^o-is). 


PRISCILLIA  NISM.  109 

and  therefore  required  no  extraneous  helper.  After  his 
death  appeal  was  made  by  PauHnus,  Desiderius  and 
Riparius  and  Orosius  to  SS.  Augustine  and  Jerome; 
by  the  Priscillianists  to  Damasus  of  Rome  and  Ambrose 
of  Milan,  and  the  precedent  unhappily  set  in  the  reign 
of  Constantine  of  calling  in  the  imperial  power  was 
followed  both  by  the  prosecutors  of  Priscillian  and  by 
Priscillian  himself.  We  do  not  find  any  authority 
vested  in  or  claimed  by  the  Bishops  of  Rome  or  exer- 
cised by  them  in  Spanish  Church  affairs  before  the 
law  of  Gratian  and  Valentinian  in  the  year  378,  which 
enacted  that  all  metropoHtans  in  the  Western  Empire, 
and  all  bishops  who  chose,  were  to  be  tried  before  the 
Bishop  of  the  imperial  city  in  case  of  any  charge  being 
made  against  them.  This  decree  of  Gratian  gave  by 
imperial  authority  to  the  Patriarch  of  Rome  a  similar 
position  to  that  which  was  given  to  the  Patriarch  of 
Constantinople  by  ecclesiastical  authority  at  the  Council 
of  Chalcedon,  which  extended  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
latter  Patriarch  over  the  Churches  of  Pontus  and  "  the 
East."  Up  to  the  time  of  Gratian's  law  all  suits  had 
to  be  settled  within  the  Church  of  the  nation  where 
they  had  arisen.  The  encroachment  made  by  that 
law  was  the  more  easily  effected  because  there  were 
no  exarchs  of  the  Churches  of  Gaul,  Britain,  and  Spain, 
as  there  were  of  the  other  eleven  Churches,  but  only 
metropolitans  without  a  special  head  of  their  own,  whose 
duty  it  would  be  to  maintain  their  rights.  From  this 
time  forward  the  idea  of  the  authority  of  the  Patriarch 
of  Rome  being  extended  throughout  the  provinces  of 
the  Western  Empire  was  no  longer  alien  to  the  sub- 
jects of  the  Western   Emperor.     The  first   Spaniards 


no        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

that  took  advantage  of  the  new  system  were  PriscilHan, 
Instantius,  and  Salvian,  who,  on  being  condemned  at 
the  Synod  of  Zaragoza,  made  appeal  to  Damasus  as 
well  as  to  Ambrose.  Damasus'  successor,  Siricius, 
claimed  some  power  outside  his  own  Church  if  he  wrote 
the  letter  which  goes  under  his  name  to  Himerius,^  and 
so  did  Innocent  I.,  who  came  next  but  one  to  Siricius, 
if  he  wrote  the  letter,  supposed  to  have  been  composed 
by  him  at  the  instance  of  Hilarius.^  Half  a  century 
later,  Leo  I.  not  only  claimed  but  exerted  an  authority  un- 
known to  any  bishops  of  Rome  until  the  law  of  Gratian 
had  invested  them  with  a  coercive  power  not  before  pos- 
sessed. That  coercive  power  was  still  further  enlarged, 
on  Leo's  entreaty,  by  Valentinian  III.,  A.D.  445,  and  it 
was  then  exercised  by  Leo,  not  as  though  it  had  been 
derived  from  the  Emperor,  but  on  the  novel  plea  that 
he,  as  Bishop  of  Rome,  had  succeeded  to  the  privileges 
of  S.  Peter,  the  first  of  the  Apostles.     Like  Siricius, 

^  Who  was  this  Himerius,  Bishop  of  Tarragona  ?  Siricius  professes 
to  write  in  the  first  year  of  his  episcopate,  that  is,  A.D.  385,  and 
he  speaks  of  Himerius  as  having  been  long  in  office — ex  antiquitate 
sacerdotii  tui.  Now  there  was  a  Council  of  Zaragoza,  which  the 
Metropolitan  of  Tarragona  would  naturally  have  presided  over,  held 
in  380.  Twelve  bishops  were  present.  The  president  was  Bishop 
Fitadius,  and  there  was  no  Himerius  there.  The  name  of  Himeiius 
does  not  appear  in  the  catalogue  of  bishops  published  by  the  Council 
of  Tarragona  in  1555.  There  is  a  Eumerius  in  334,  that  is,  fifty 
years  before  Siricius,  and  a  Nicomerius  elected  in  390,  that  is,  five 
years  after  the  date  of  his  supposed  letter. 

2  Who  was  this  Hilarius?  Florez  conjectures  that  he  might  have 
been  a  Bishop  of  Tarragona,  but  the  name  does  not  occur  in  either  of 
the  Tarragona  lists,  or  in  any  other  list  of  Spanish  prelates  of  the  date, 
lie  is  said  by  Innocent  to  have  gone  to  Rome,  and  to  have  caused  him 
to  write  his  letter.  That  letter  does  not  appear  in  the  collection  of 
Dionysius  Exiguus  ;  it  is  addressed  to  a  Council,  not  of  Toledo,  but 
of  Toulouse  ;  of  the  two  extant  copies  of  it,  one  is  half  as  long  again 
as  the  other  ;  it  is  only  in  the  longer  copy  that  Hilary's  name  is  found, 
and  it  is  there  spelt  once  as  Hilarius,  the  other  time  as  Hela^lius. 


PRISCILLIANISM.  iii 

we  find  Leo  represented  as  addressing  a  Spanish  bishop, 
called  Turribius,  concerning  the  affairs  of  the  Spanish 
Church.^     Whether  these  Papal  rescripts  are  genuine 

^  Who  was  this  Turribius  ?  If  documents  of  doubtful  credibility  are 
to  be  regarded,  there  were  at  least  four  Turribiuses  : — (i.)  Pope  Leo's 
Italian  notary,  said  by  Lucretius,  Bishop  of  Braga,  to  have  brought 
Leo's  letter  to  Spain  (which  Idatius  says  was  brought  by  the  Deacon 
Pervincus).  (2.)  Pope  Leo's  correspondent,  said  to  have  been  Bishop 
of  Astorga.  Legend,  partly  founded  on  a  letter  supposed  to  have  been 
written  by  him  to  Idatius,  and  Cyronius,  says  that  he  travelled  abroad 
and  spent  five  years  in  Jerusalem,  where  he  was  made  custodian  of 
relics,  some  of  which  he  brought  back  with  him  and  deposited  in  the 
Church  of  San  Salvador  in  Oviedo,  whither  he  had  been  summoned  by 
King  Alonzo  the  Chaste,  who  lived  in  the  eighth  century  ;  that  he 
wrought  a  miracle  of  healing  on  the  Suevic  king's  daughter,  who  lived 
in  the  fifth  century  ;  that  he  was  elected  Bishop  of  Astorga  in  444, 
immediately  succeeding  Diclinnius,  who  died  in  420  ;  that  he  was 
charged  with  a  carnal  crime  by  a  deacon,  and  disproved  it  by  taking 
up  in  his  hands  some  burning  coals  and  carrying  them  round  the 
church  in  his  rochet  (this  word  is  not  known  till  the  tenth  century), 
while  he  sang  the  Psalm  Extirgat  Dens;  that  he  discovered  some 
Manichees  in  Astorga  and  drove  them  out  in  445  ;  that  he  wrote  a 
letter  against  Priscillianism  to  Idatius  and  Ceponius,  which  is  rejected, 
by  Baluzius  as  spurious  ;  that  he  wrote  a  letter,  and  a  consultation,  and 
a  treatise  on  the  same  subject  to  Pope  Leo  L,  none  of  which  exist; 
that  he  received  a  reply  from  Leo,  the  genuineness  of  which  is  ques- 
tioned ;  that  he  held  a  Synod  at  Astorga  to  carry  out  Leo's  instructions, 
which  never  was  held,  and  caused  another  to  be  assembled  at  Toledo, 
which  probably  had  no  existence ;  that  he  flooded  Palencia  by  making 
a  river  rise  till  the  inhabitants,  who  were  Priscillianists,  were  converted ; 
that  he  deprived  Astorga  of  rain  because  the  people  had  driven  him 
out,  till  they  begged  him  to  come  back  again,  on  which  rain  fell  and 
all  the  bells  of  the  city  rang  of  themselves  ;•  that  he  was  taken  prisoner 
by  King  Theodoric  when  he  defeated  the  Suevi  and  captured  Astorga 
in  465  ;  that  he  died  in  480,  in  Palentia  according  to  the  Roman  Martyr- 
ology,  in  Lievana  according  to  the  Astorgan  Breviary,  to  which  place  he 
had  retired,  having  resigned  his  See  and  having  built  a  church  in  which 
to  be  buried.  (3.)  The  third  Turribius  was  a  monk,  not  a  bishop,  who 
founded  the  monastery  of  S.  Martin  de  Lievana.  (4. )  The  fourth  was 
a  Bishop  of  Palencia,  to  whom  Montanus  of  Toledo  is  supposed  to  have 
addressed  a  letter  in  527,  which  represents  him  as  a  powerful  and  suc- 
cessful opponent  of  Priscillianism.  This  letter  is  designated  by  Mr. 
Ffoulkes  as  "a  clumsy  forgery"  (Diet.  Ant.,  s.v,  Toledo). 

Similar  difficulties  attend  the  next  case  of  a  supposed  communication 
];)etween   a  Pope  and  Spain.      Pope   Hilarius  is  said  to  have  corre- 


112         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

or  not  (and  it  is  certain  that  criticism  has  not  been 
sufficiently  trenchant  in  declaring  eighty-five  out  of 
one  hundred  and  eleven  Papal  Decretal  Letters  up  to 
this  date  to  be  forgeries,  and  looking  on  subsequent 
letters  as  genuine),  Spanish  independence  was  not 
affected  by  them,  nor,  so  far  as  we  can  trace,  had  the 
thought  of  subjection  to  the  See  of  Rome,  any  more 
than  to  the  See  of  Carthage,  or  Hippo,  or  Milan,  been 
even  contemplated  by  Spanish  churchmen.  In  431  we 
find  Vitalis  and  Constantine,  two  Spanish  presbyters, 
appealing  for  counsel  and  help,  not  to  Celestine  of 
Rome,  but  to  Capreolus  of  Carthage. 

ponded  with  Ascanius,  Bishop  of  Tarragona,  but  Hilarius'  date  is  465, 
and  one  of  the  twoTarragonese  catalogues  places  Ascanius  in  564,  and 
the  other  assigns  his  death  to  the  year  578.  So  many  documents  which 
profess  to  be  historical  records  of  the  early  Spanish  Church  were  forged 
in  the  eleventh  century,  that  it  is  idle  to  attempt  to  reconcile  their  con- 
tradictions. A  living  Spanish  historian,  Vicente  de  la  Fuente,  says  of 
Spanish  Church  history  of  the  eleventh  century,  "We  swim  in  a  sea  of 
fable  "  {Historia  Ecclesiasiica  de  Espaiia,  iv.  1 05,  Madrid,  1873). 


CHAPTER    IX. 

GOTHIC  SPAIN— THE  GOTHIC  CONQUEST  OF  THE 
PENINSULA. 

For  the  first  four  hundred  years  after  the  Christian 
era,  Spain  lay  secure  under  the  lee  of  its  Pyrenean 
range  of  mountains,  and  the  still  more  ample  protection 
of  the  Roman  Empire,  which  appeared  to  be  more  solid 
and  firm  than  even  the  eternal  hills.  But  the  time 
was  now  come  when  the  effects  of  the  shocks  given 
to  the  Empire  with  increasing  force  by  the  barbarous 
nations  of  the  North  should  reach  the  most  distant 
province  of  the  West.  Already,  in  the  reign  of  Marcus 
Antoninus,  Rome  had  been  terrified  by  a  combination 
of  the  wild  German  tribes,  and  in  the  time  of  Decius 
a  Roman  emperor  had  fallen  in  fair  fight  with  the 
Gothic  barbarians.  Spain  herself  had  suffered  in  the 
reign  of  Gallienus  by  a  sudden  flood  of  Prankish  in- 
vaders, who  poured  across  the  Pyrenees,  sacked  Tarra- 
gona, and  overwhelmed  the  whole  of  the  astonished 
Peninsula.  But  the  torrent  passed  away  as  it  came. 
When  no  more  was  left  in  Spain  to  ravage,  the  Franks 
seized  some  boats,  and  crossing  the  strait  to  Africa  in 
search  of  further  conquest,  disappeared  from  the  view 
of  the  Spaniards  with  the  same  rapidity  with  which 
they  had  broken  upon  their  sight.  The  Peninsula 
Hfted  up  its  head  again  and  found  itself  little  the  worse 
for  the  visitation.     The  irruption  of  the  year  409  was 

"3 


114        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  CF  SPAIN. 

of  a  very  different  character.  In  that  year  a  vast  body 
of  barbarians,  Vandals,  Suevi,  and  Alani,  burst  over 
the  Pyrenees,  reduced  the  whole  Peninsula  to  subjec- 
tion, and  estabhshed  themselves  as  lords  of  the  soil. 
The  Vandals  and  Suevi  were  of  German,  the  Alani 
of  Scythian,  origin.  The  Vandals  are  first  found 
as  near  neighbours  of  the  Goths  to  the  south  of  the 
Baltic.  Like  the  rest  of  the  German  nations  they 
moved  southwards,  eastwards,  and  westwards,  some 
of  them  appearing  in  Bohemia,  some  in  Moravia,  some 
in  Pannonia,  some  in  Dacia.  A  vast  body  of  them 
joined  Radagaisus  in  his  invasion  of  Italy,  and  on  his 
death  before  Florence  they  made  their  way  into  Gaul, 
with  their  comrades  in  arms,  the  Suevi  and  the  Alani, 
in  the  year  406. 

The  Suevi  were  a  kindred  German  race,  consist- 
ing of  several  tribes  whose  original  home  was  a  little 
below  that  of  the  Vandals,  from  which  spot  they  mi- 
grated southwards  to  the  banks  of  the  Rhine.  The 
Alani  were  not  of  Teutonic  blood.  Thrust  forward 
by  the  Huns  and  other  barbarous  tribes,  they  pushed 
westwards  from  Scythia  and  settled  down  for  a 
time  in  various  places,  whence  they  easily  moved 
agairb.  In  375  they  took  part  in  the  overthrow  of 
the  Gothic  kingdom  of  Hermanric;  after  which,  with 
barbarian  levity,  they  joined  the  Gothic  and  other 
roving  bands  in  assailing  the  Empire,  and  from  that  time 
are  found  in  close  connection  with  the  Teutonic  tribes. 
In  the  two  years  which  followed  406  the  allied 
marauders  made  themselves  masters  of  Gaul.  Town 
after  town  fell  before  them,  and  the  open  country  was 
ravaged  at  their  will.     No  help  came  from  the  Emperor 


GOTHIC  SPAIN.  115 

Honorius,  but  at  this  time  the  British  claimant  of  the 
Imperial  purple,  Constantine,  landed  at  Boulogne,  and 
gathered  under  him  such  as  still  remained  faithful  to 
the  Roman  name  in  Gaul.  Spain  acknowledged  his 
authority  after  a  slight  resistance  made  by  four  brothers 
of  the  house  of  Theodosius.  But  she  did  not  thus  pur- 
chase peace  for  long.  Gerontius,  the  lieutenant  of  Con- 
stantine in  Spain,  revolted  from  him  and  set  up  a  third 
Western  Emperor,  Maximus,  who  took  up  his  residence 
at  Tarragona  for  the  short  time  that  he  was  allowed  to 
play  the  Emperor.  Both  Constantine  and  Maximus 
paid  the  penalty  of  their  ambition  with  their  lives. 

Meantime  the  Vandals,  Suevi,  and  Alani,  who  had 
poured  into  Gaul  in  the  year  406,  were  still  at  large 
in  that  country.  They  amounted  to  more  than  100,000 
men,  and  having  wasted  the  fair  lands  of  France,  they 
looked  about  for  new  fields  to  ravage.  Up  to  this  time 
the  Pyrenees  had  served  as  a  secure  protection  to 
Spain  from  the  Northern  barbarians,  except  for  the 
passing  invasion  of  the  Franks  in  the  time  of  GaUienus. 
The  defiles  had  been  guarded  by  Pyreneeans  well 
acquainted  with  their  native  mountains,  and  until  these 
defiles  were  forced  or  betrayed,  the  rich  plains  beyond 
the  mountains  were  inaccessible  from  the  north.  But 
when  Constantine  sent  troops  to  reduce  Theodosius' 
kinsmen  in  408,  he  transferred  the  guardianship  of  the 
mountains  from  the  native  forces  to  his  own  troops, 
drawn  from  all  parts  of  the  world  and  careless  of 
the  fate  of  Spain.  The  Vandals,  Alani,  and  Suevi, 
still  holding  together  as  in  406,  saw  their  opportunity 
and  seized  it.  The  mercenary  guards  joined  the  in- 
vaders, and  the  barbarian  tide  rolled  over  the  range 

I 


Ii6        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

of  mountains  into  the  plains  beyond  on  Tuesday,  28th 
September,  A.D.  409. 

The  first  employment  of  the  invaders  was  the  plunder 
and  robbery  of  the  natives  and  settlers,  who  had  grown 
rich  and  unwarlike  in  long  years  of  peace.  It  was 
little  to  them  that  famine  and  pestilence  followed  in 
their  wake  so  long  as  they  had  still  something  to  wrest 
from  the  unhappy  owners  of  the  soil.  But  when  all 
was  gone  except  bare  fields  and  stone  walls,  they  found 
it  necessary  to  establish  themselves  in  the  conquered 
territor}^,  and  to  compel  their  subjects  to  cultivate  for 
their  masters  the  lands  which  but  now  were  their  own. 
The  only  risk  was  lest  they  should  quarrel  with  one 
another  over  the  spoil.  To  prevent  this  they  divided 
the  country  between  them.  The  Vandals,  some  of 
whom  were  called  Silingi,  seized  Andalusia  and 
Granada.  The  Suevi  appropriated  Galicia,  Leon,  and 
Castile.  The  Alani  estabHshed  themselves  in  Portugal 
and  Estremadura.  The  foundation  of  three  barbaric 
kingdoms  were  thus  laid  under  Gunderic,  King  of  the 
Vandals;  Hermeric,  King  of  the  Suevi;  and  Atace, 
King  of  the  Alani,  the  previous  inhabitants  of  the 
Peninsula  being  reduced  to  a  state  of  serfdom. 

The  helpless  Provincials  looked  in  vain  to  the  Western 
Emperor  for  succour.  Honorius,  in  his  marsh-girt 
refuge  at  Ravenna,  was  as  helpless  as  they,  and  his 
great  Minister,  Stilicho,  was  dead.  Vengeance  was 
wrought  on  the  oppressors  of  Spain,  not  by  the  armies 
of  the  Roman  Empire,  but  by  another  body  of  Northern 
invaders,  who  were  singly  more  powerful  than  the 
three  allied  nations  combined.  Natives,  apparently,  of 
Scandinavia,  the  Goths  migrated  to  the  south  of  the 


GOTHIC  SPAIN.  117 

Baltic,  and  thence  about  the  year  180  they  moved 
to  the  Eiixine  Sea,  and  spread  themselves  along  its 
northern  coasts  and  the  country  lying  on  the  northern 
banks  of  the  Danube.  Their  first  serious  conflict 
with  the  Empire  led  to  the  defeat  of  a  Roman  army 
and  the  death  of  the  Emperor  Decius  in  battle. 
Checked  for  a  time  by  the  skill  of  the  Emperor 
Claudius,  surnamed  Gothicus,  and  again  by  the  Em- 
peror Constantine,  they  turned  their  aims  and  energies 
eastwards,  and  built  up  a  powerful  and  independent 
kingdom  in  the  wild  country  stretching  from  the  Baltic 
to  the  Euxine,  under  Ermanaric  or  Hermanric,  of  the 
noble  family  of  the  Amaling.  The  kingdom  was  shat- 
tered, almost  as  soon  as  constituted,  by  an  invasion  of 
the  Huns,  who  in  the  end  drove  the  Goths  before 
them  to  the  banks  of  the  Danube,  which  they  were 
permitted  by  Valens  to  cross — an  error  of  judgment 
for  which  the  Emperor  paid  with  his  Hfe,  being  killed 
in  the  battle  of  Hadrianople,  A.D.  378.  The  firm  hand 
of  Theodosius  restrained  the  triumphant  barbarians, 
but  as  soon  as  that  was  removed,  the  weakness  of  the 
Empire  and  the  power  of  the  Goths  made  themselves 
conspicuous.  Under  their  young  King,  Alaric  the  Bal- 
thing,  the  invaders  swept  through  Greece,  penetrated 
Italy,  besieged  and  captured  Rome,  and  carried  away 
with  them  the  Emperor's  sister,  Galla  Placidia,  as  a 
prisoner.  In  the  midst  of  his  successes  and  victories 
Alaric  died.  His  brother-in-law,  Ataulphus  or  Atawulf, 
who  was  elected  in  his  place,  entertained  no  such  far- 
reaching  scheme  of  conquest  as  Alaric,  and  was  willing 
to  lead  his  Goths  across  the  Alps,  to  carve  out  a  kingdom 
for  themselves  in  Southern  Gaul.     But,  being  pressed 


ii8        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

onward  by  the  Roman  commander,  Constantine,  and 
invited  by  the  suffering  Spaniards,  he  followed  in  the 
steps  of  the  Vandals,  Suevi,  and  Alani,  led  his  troops 
across  the  Pyrenees  in  the  year  414,  seized  Barcelona, 
and  made  that  town  his  royal  headquarters.  Before  he 
had  time  to  subdue  his  Vandal  rivals  in  Spain  he  was 
assassinated ;  and  as  the  next  king,  Sigeric,  reigned 
only  seven  days,  he  could  do  nothing  in  that  direction. 
But  his  successor,  WaUia,  made  it  a  condition  of  peace 
between  himself  and  the  Empire  that  he  should  have 
the  Emperor's  authorit}'  for  the-  reduction  of  the  other 
Northern  invaders  in  Spain,  and  he  at  once  threw  him- 
self upon  the  Vandals,  and  then  upon  the  Alani,  with 
such  fierceness  that  he  drove  the  former  to  take  refuge 
under  the  wing  of  the  Suevi  in  Galicia,  slew  Atace, 
King  of  the  Alani,  and  compelled  his  subjects  to  give 
up  their  national  character  and  attach  themselves  to 
the  Vandals  or  Suevi.  Honorius  and  Constantine, 
perhaps  fearing  that  the  Goths  would  establish  them- 
selves too  firmly  in  Spain,  recalled  them  to  the  other 
side  of  the  Pyrenees,  giving  them  a  territory  which, 
enlarged  by  their  owji  swords,  became  the  Gothic 
kingdom  of  Toulouse.  The  Vandals  meantime,  having 
recovered  their  old  possessions  in  Andalusia,  after  some 
fighting  with  the  Suevi,  accepted  Boniface's  invita- 
tion in  426  and  sailed  across  the  strait  to  Africa  under 
Guiseric  or  Geiseric,  brother  of  their  first  king,  Gunderic. 
There  they  created  for  themselves  a  kingdom,  which 
flourished  for  a  hundred  years,  until  it  was  finally 
overthrown  by  Justinian's  great  general,  Belisarius. 

The  Suevi,  disembarrassed  of  both  of  their  powerful 
antagonists,  found  themselves  masters  of  the  Peninsula, 


GOTHIC  SPAIN.  119 

except  so  far  as  their  dominion  was  checked  by  the 
guerrilla  bands  of  Bagaudas  which  competed  with  them 
in  plundering  the  fields  belonging  to  the  inhabitants 
of  the  cities,  who  cowered  behind  their  walls.  Spain 
became  the  prize  for  which  the  Emperor  from  Ravenna, 
the  Goths  from  Toulouse,  and  the  Suevi  in  Gahcia  con- 
tended. The  position  of  the  Suevi  on  the  south  of  the 
mountain  barrier  gave  them  an  advantage  which  they 
were  not  slow  to  make  use  of,  until  at  length  they 
provoked  Theodoric,  the  second  Visigoth  King  of  that 
name,  to  make  an  expedition  against  them,  which 
ended  in  the  capture  and  death  of  Rekiar,  their  King. 
Theodoric's  brother,  Euric,  who  came  to  the  throne 
in  466,  completed  the  conquest  of  the  Peninsula,  and 
from  that  time  Spain  may  be  regarded  as  a  posses- 
sion of  the  Goths,  the  Suevic  kings  being  allowed  to 
reign  in  the  north-west  corner  of  it  as  vassals  of  their 
Gothic  masters.  Euric's  son,  Alaric,  lost  his  French 
dominions  and  his  life  in  battle  with  the  Franks  in  507  ; 
and  the  kingdom  of  his  son,  Amalaric,  and  his  suc- 
cessors was  exclusively  Spanish,  with  the  exception  of 
a  strip  of  the  French  coast  which  constituted  the  pro- 
vince of  Narbonne.  Spain  itself  was  occupied  by  ( i )  the 
Goths,  now  lords  of  the  country ;  (2)  the  old  inhabitants 
of  the  land,  known  by  the  name  of  Romans,  subjects 
of  the  Goths;  and  (3)  the  Suevi,  confined  to  Gahcia 
and  the  northern  half  of  Portugal,  vassals  of  the  Goths. 
The  three  nations  which  were  hereafter  to  be  welded 
into  one  (one  of  the  three  being  already  formed  of  a 
threefold  fusion  of  Iberians,  Celts,  and  Romans)  were 
as  yet  ruled  by  different  laws  and  held  different  forms  of 
religion.     The  Provincials  had  lived  hitherto  under  the 


120        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

Roman  law,  and  in  dealings  with  each  other  they  were 
still  permitted  to  retain  that  law,  not  yet  put  in  per- 
fect form  by  Justinian,  but  adapted  for  their  use  by 
Alaric  II.,  the  Visigothic  King.  The  Suevi  had  no 
written  code  of  laws,  but  they  had  followed  the  practices 
and  maxims  which  they  had  brought  with  them  from 
the  North.  The  Goths  themselves  could  boast  the  first 
of  the  barbaric  Codes,  which  was  drawn  up  for  them  by 
their  great  King,  Euric,  who  in  this  respect  set  a  noble 
example  to  the  Northern  invaders  of  Southern  lands.^ 

In  respect  to  religion,  the  Provincials  had  learnt  the 
common  faith  of  Christendom,  which,  because  it  was 
held  throughout  the  Church  from  East  to  West  and 
from  North  to  South,  was  called  the  Catholic  faith, 
that  is,  the  faith  not  of  one  or  another  local  Church, 
but  of  all  the  federated  Churches  which  together  con- 
stituted the  Universal  Church.  The  Suevi  had  entered 
the  Peninsula  heathens,  and  they  retained  their  Northern 
mythology  until  the  reign  of  their  third  King,  Rekiar, 
A.D.  448,  who  adopted  Christianity  for  himself  and  his 
people  in  order  that  the  Suevic  Royal  Family  might  the 
more  easily  intermarry  with  that  of  the  Goths.  The  form 
of  Christianity  which  they  adopted  was  Arianism,  which 
they  retained  till  560,  when,  in  the  second  year  of 
King  Theodemir,  they  exchanged  it  for  that  which  was 
known  as  the  Cathohc  or  common  faith  of  Christendom. 

The  Goths  entered  Spain  a  civiUsed  nation,  as  com- 
pared with  the  three  other  invading  hordes,  and  they 
entered  it  as  Christians,  but  the  form  of  their  Christi- 
anity, like  that  of  all  the  other  Germanic  tribes,  was 
Arianism.     The  reason  of  this   belongs    to   the  early 

^  See  Canciani,  Barbaroruni  Leges ^  Venetiis,  1 789. 


GOTHIC  SPAIN.  121 

history  of  the  race.  About  the  middle  of  the  third 
century  the  Goths,  returning  from  one  of  their  phmder- 
ing  raids,  had  brought  back  to  Dacia  from  Cappadocia  a 
band  of  prisoners,  who  intermarried  with  their  captors 
and  settled  with  them  in  the  country  north  of  the 
Danube.  The  grandson  of  one  of  these  captives  was 
Ulphilas  or  Wulfila,  born  early  in  the  fourth  century. 
In  332  Wulfila  accompanied  some  Gothic  ambas- 
sadors to  Constantinople,  and  remained  behind  in  the 
new  capital  when  the  ambassadors  returned  home. 
He  there  entered  the  priesthood,  and  was  consecrated 
as  a  missionary  bishop  about  the  year  340.  He  re- 
turned to  Dacia,  and  occupied  himself  so  successfully 
in  converting  his  countrymen  that  a  violent  persecu- 
tion of  Christians  was  set  on  foot  by  the  Gothic  King, 
Athanagild,  on  which  Wulfila  obtained  leave  from  Con- 
stantius  to  cross  the  Danube  with  such  of  his  flock  as 
chose  to  follow  him,  and  he  established  himself  with 
them  in  Moesia.  The  effects  of  Christianity  here  ex- 
hibited themselves  in  a  remarkable  manner.  Of  the 
whole  Gothic  race  these  Goths  alone  took  no  part  in 
the  fierce  wars  which  devastated  the  world.  They 
led  a  quiet  pastoral  life,  enjoying  a  peace  the  charms 
of  which  none  of  their  compatriots  could  understand. 
Wulfila  himself  was  occupied  not  only  with  the  epis- 
copal supervision  of  his  flock,  whom  he  taught  to  read 
and  write,  but  also  in  the  translation  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures into  the  Gothic  tongue,  which  served  to  confirm 
not  only  his  Moesian  shepherds,  but  the  mass  of  the 
Gothic  race  in  Christianity.  The  whole  body  of  his 
Christian  converts  had  not  followed  Wulfila  into 
Moesia.      Many  remained   on   the   north    side  of  the 


122        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

Danube,  and  through  their  exertions  and  those  of 
the  bishops  and  missionaries  of  Pannonia,  the  Goths 
— Ostrogoths  and  Visigoths  ahke — embraced  Chris- 
tianity. But  it  happened  that  the  Court  rehgion 
at  Constantinople  at  the  time  of  Wulfila's  education 
in  that  city  was  Arian.  He  was  probably  conse- 
crated by  an  Arian  prelate,  and  he  took  part  himself, 
A.D.  360,  in  a  Synod  at  Constantinople,  which  pro- 
nounced, according  to  the  Acacian  formula,  that  our 
Lord's  nature  was  not  the  same  as  that  of  the  Father, 
but  only  like  to  it.  The  bishops  of  the  country  along 
the  banks  of  the  Danube  were  also  Arians  who  held 
that  particular  tenet.  The  consequence  was  that  the 
Goths — both  those  of  Moesia  and  those  of  Dacia — 
became  Arians  at  the  same  moment  that  they  became 
Christians.  Thus  it  happened  that  the  Gothic  kingdom 
of  Toulouse  was  an  Arian  kingdom  and  the  Gothic 
rulers  of  Spain  were  Arians. 

What  sort  of  agreement  would  there  be  between  the 
three  nationalities  cooped  up  in  Spain,  which  differed 
in  traditions,  prejudices,  customs,  laws,  and  religion  ? 
Fortunately  for  the  Provincials,  Visigothic  Arianism 
was  singularly  tolerant.  Owing  perhaps  to  Arianism 
having  been  adopted  uncontroversially  as  part  of  the 
Christianity  which  the  nation  first  learned,  persecution 
was  alien  to  its  genius.  Visigothic  kings  occasionally 
persecuted  those  called  Catholics,  but  when  they  did 
so,  it  was  not  on  religious  but  on  political  grounds.  If 
Euric  persecuted  Catholics  in  Gaul,  or  Leovigild  in 
Spain,  it  was  because  the  leaders  of  the  Cathohc  party 
were  traitors  to  the  throne. 

Leovigild   was    the    last  Arian   sovereign  of  Spain. 


GOTHIC  SPAIN.  123 

The  line  of  kings  from  Euric  to  him  was  as  follows : — 
Alaric  II.,  A.D.  483 ;  Gesalic,  A.D.  506 ;  Amalaric, 
A.D.  511  ;  Theudis,  the  Ostrogoth,  A.D.  531 ;  Theiidi- 
gisel,  A.D.  548;  Agila,  A.D.  549;  Athanagild,  A.D.  554; 
Leuva,  A.D.  567  ;  Leovigild,  A.D.  570. 

Amalaric,  who  may  be  regarded  as  the  first  of  the 
purely  Gothic-Spanish  kings,  being  a  child  at  the  time 
of  his  father's  death,  his  interests  were  guarded  by 
Theodoric  the  Ostrogoth,  King  of  Italy,  and  his  general 
Theudis.  He  was  the  first  to  introduce  into  the  Royal 
Family  of  the  Visigoths  that  religious  dissension  which 
afterwards  became  disastrous  to  several  of  the  sove- 
reigns. In  three  instances  intermarriage  with  the 
Prankish  Royal  Family  brought  first  dissension  and 
then  death  into  the  Visigothic  palace.  The  Franks  were 
the  only  North  German  race  that  embraced  the  Catholic 
or  common  faith  of  Christendom  instead  of  the  Arianism 
with  which  the  others  were  imbued.  Whether  as  a 
matter  of  conscience  or  for  political  reasons,  the  Franks 
were  always  the  champions  of  o^-thodoxy,  and  the  female 
members  of  the  Royal  Family  were  more  remarkable 
for  their  zeal  than  w^ere  their  fathers  and  brothers. 
Amalaric  took  for  his  wife  Clotilda,  daughter  of  Clovis. 
Soon  complaints  reached  her  brother,  Childebert  of 
Paris,  that  the  Spanish  Queen  was  ill-treated  by  her 
husband  and  not  allowed  the  free  exercise  of  her  religion. 
A  Prankish  king  was  always  ready  for  war.  Childebert 
raised  a  large  army,  defeated  the  Goths,  and  brought 
away  his  sister,  who,  however,  died  on  the  way  back  to 
Paris.  Amalaric,  having  lost  his  prestige,  was  assassi- 
nated at  the  instance  of  his  powerful  minister  Theudis, 
who  established  himself  on  the  throne  in  his  place,  to 


124        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

be  himself  assassinated  by  a  feigned  madman  after  a 
reign  of  seventeen  years.      Theiidigisel  was  likewise 
murdered  in  his  own  palace,  and  the  same  fate  over- 
took Agila.     Athanagild,  who  had  headed  a  rebellion 
against  Agila,  in  order  to  strengthen  his  party  called 
in  the  troops  of  Justinian,  and  when  he  came  to  the 
throne  he  could  not  get  rid  of  them.     It  is  indicative 
of  the  change  that  was  coming  over  men's  minds  in 
their  conception  of  the  Empire  that  these  soldiers  were 
no  longer  regarded  as  one  in  name  and  nation  with  the 
Romans  already  in  Spain,  but  were  looked  upon  as  an 
alien  people  and  called  Greeks.     Athanagild  was  the 
second  of  the  Visigothic  sovereigns  that  suffered  in  his 
family,  though  not  in  his  own  person,  from  intermar- 
riage with  the  Frankish  princes.    His  younger  daughter, 
Brunechild,  was  married  to  Sigebert,  King  of  the  East 
Franks ;  his  eldest  daughter,  Galswintha,  to  Sigebert's 
brother,  Chilperic,   King   of  the  North- West  Franks. 
Galswintha  was  shamefully  maltreated,  and  at  length 
put  to  death  by  Chilperic  at  the  instance  of  his  mis- 
tress, Fredegunda.     Brunechild  persuaded  her  husband 
to  avenge  her  sister's  wrong  by  making  war  on  his 
brother.      At  length  she  herself  was  seized,  tied   by 
Fredegunda's   orders   to  a   fiery   horse,  and    dragged 
along  the  ground  till  she  died.      Athanagild  did   not 
live  to  hear  of  her  death. 

Athanagild's  successor,  Lieuva,  is  hardly  more  than 
a  name.  For  three  years  he  reigned  over  the  Gothic 
province  of  Narbonne,  having  transferred  the  govern- 
ment of  Spain  to  the  stronger  hand  of  his  brother 
Leovigild.  At  the  end  of  that  time  he  died  and  left 
his  brother  sole  sovereign. 


CHAPTER  X. 

KING  LEOVIGILD. 

Leovigild  was  the  greatest  king  that  Visigothic  Spain 
produced.  He  found  the  country  almost  in  anarchy, 
into  which  it  had  fallen  during  an  interregnum  of  six 
months  which  elapsed  before  the  nobles  could  agree  in 
an  election  to  the  throne.  The  Imperialists,  now  called 
Byzantines,  whom  Athanagild  had  introduced  into  the 
kingdom,  kept  possession  of  the  district  round  Granada 
and  Cordova.  The  Basques  were  making  plundering 
forays  from  their  mountains,  the  Suevi  were  beginning 
to  assert  their  independence;  and  more  dangerous 
than  all,  a  Catholic  party  was  to  be  found  in  every  city, 
which  looked  to  the  Franks  for  sympathy  and  help, 
and  bore  the  rule  of  Arian  lords  with  more  and  more 
impatience.  Leovigild  began  by  the  reduction  of  the 
Byzantines  and  the  capture  of  their  stronghold,  Cor- 
dova; he  drove  back  the  Basques  to  their  fastnesses, 
he  terrified  the  Suevi  into  a  temporary  submission, 
and  he  showed  himself  so  well  prepared  for  hostilities 
that  he  prevented  a  Frankish  war.  His  contest  with 
his  Catholic  subjects  was  of  a  more  perilous  and  a 
more  tragical  character. 

Like  two  of  his  predecessors,  he  sought  to  strengthen 
himself  by  a  marriage  alliance  with  the  Franks,  and, 
like    them,    he   reaped    disaster    to   himself  from  his 


126        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

attempt.  Ingunthis  was  the  daughter  of  Sigebert 
and  Brunechild,  and  Leovigild  sought  and  obtained 
her  in  marriage  for  his  eldest  son^  Hermenigild. 
Ingunthis  was  a  strong  Cathohc,  like  the  rest  of  her 
house.  Goiswintha,  the  widow  of  Athanagild,  and  now 
the  wife  of  Leovigild,  was  an  equally  strong  Arian. 
The  Queen  and  the  Princess,  grandmother  and  grand- 
daughter, could  not  agree,  and  Leovigild  found  it 
necessary  to  put  a  space  between  them.  He  sent 
Hermenigild,  with  the  title  of  sovereign,  to  Seville, 
while  he  himself  with  his  Queen  resided  in  Toledo. 
The  plan  turned  out  otherwise  than  he  had  intended. 
Ingunthis  now  had  Hermenigild  to  herself.  She  in- 
spired him  with  anger  against  his  father  and  the  Queen, 
and  urged  him  to  at  once  save  his  soul,  and  put  him- 
self at  the  head  of  a  powerful  party  throughout  the 
Peninsula,  which  abhorred  the  Arian  tenets.  Her  en- 
treaties were  followed  up  by  the  arguments  of  Leander, 
Bishop  of  Seville,  and  the  young  man  yielded  to  the 
pressure  put  upon  him.  He  raised  the  standard  of 
rebellion  against  his  father,  summoned  to  his  aid  the 
Byzantines  from  the  east  and  the  Suevi  from  the 
north-west  of  the  Peninsula,  and  by  proclaiming  him- 
self a  Catholic,  sought  to  gather  round  him  the  old 
Provincials,  who  were  likely  to  prefer  a  sovereign  who 
held  the  same  faith  with  themselves. 

Leovigild  was  deeply  attached  to  his  son,  and  his 
first  effort  was  to  bring  about  a  reconciliation  by  peace- 
ful means.  ''  Come,"  he  wrote,  ''  and  let  us  confer 
together,"  But  the  son  feared  a  stratagem,  and  would 
not  come.  He  was  confident  of  success.  He  had  the 
greater  part  of  Andalusia  with   him,  and  in  the  west 


KING  LEOVIGILD.  127 

the  strong  city  of  Merida  had  declared  for  him  through 
the  influence  of  its  Bishop,  Masona.  To  show  his 
defiance  of  his  father,  he  struck  coins  bearing  the 
superscription  of  King  Hermenigild,  and  strengthened 
the  fortifications  of  Seville.  Leovigild,  finding  that 
peaceful  measures  were  of  no  avail,  took  the  field  with 
his  army,  reduced  Merida,  defeated  Mir,  King  of  the 
Suevi,  as  he  was  on  the  march  to  form  a  junction  with 
Hermenigild,  and  then  formed  the  siege  of  Seville. 
Hermenigild  had  already  sent  his  wife  and  child  to 
Cordova,  which  was  held  by  the  Byzantines,  and 
before  the  fall  of  Seville  he  escaped  and  rejoined  them 
in  that  strong  city.  The  King  followed  with  his  army, 
and  on  his  appearance  before  Cordova  the  Imperialists 
consented  to  the  surrender  of  the  fugitive.  His  brother 
Reccared  found  him  in  a  church  where  he  had  sought 
asylum,  and  brought  him  to  his  father  with  the  pro- 
mise that  his  life  should  be  spared.  Leovigild  em- 
braced him,  and  sent  him  to  five  in  exile  at  Valencia, 
deprived  of  his  royal  title.  Leander  of  Seville  had 
already  fled  the  kingdom,  and  was  gone  to  Constanti- 
nople. The  Bishop  of  Agde  fled  to  France ;  Masona 
of  Merida  was  imprisoned.  The  King's  enemies  were 
subdued  or  banished,  and  he  took  this  opportunity  for 
finally  reducing  the  Suevi  and  incorporating  them  into 
his  kingdom. 

The  Suevi  had  by  this  time  given  up  Arianism  and 
accepted  the  Catholic  faith.  Under  Hermeric,  A.D.  409, 
and  Rekila,  A.D.  438,  they  had  been  heathens.  Under 
Rekiar,  A.D.  448,  Maldra,  A.D.  457,  Frumarius,  A.D. 
460,  and  for  the  next  hundred  years,  they  were  Arian. 
In  560,  which  was  the  second  year  of  King  Theodemir, 


128         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

either  through  the  Frankish  and  Imperial  attractions 
being  greater  than  the  Gothic,  or  through  the  influence 
of  Martin  of  Dumium,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Braga, 
they  became  CathoHc.  The  effect  of  the  absorption  of 
so  many  CathoUcs  into  a  kingdom  which  was  already 
divided  between  a  Catholic  and  an  Arian  faction  showed 
itself  in  the  next  reign,  and  conduced  to  the  Gothic 
nation  following  the  example  of  the  Suevi  and  becoming, 
like  them,  Catholic. 

While  Leovigild  was  still  occupied  in  the  reduction 
of  the  Suevi,  in  the  year  585,  the  death  of  his  son 
Hermenigild  occurred  at  Tarragona.  He  was  killed  by 
one  Sisbert,  as  we  learn  from  John  Biclarensis,  and, 
Gregory  of  Tours  tells  us,  with  the  sanction  of  his 
father,  Leovigild.  It  is  probable  that  he  had  broken 
his  parole,  and  was  making  his  way  along  the  coast 
to  his  old  Byzantine  friends  and  allies  when  he  was 
overtaken  and  slain.  His  wife,  Ingunthis,  had  already 
died  in  580,  on  her  way  to  Constantinople,  where  their 
young  son  Athanagild  lived  and  died  in  obscurity. 

The  Spanish  chroniclers  have  no  word  to  say  in 
favour  of  Hermenigild.  His  contemporary,  John  Bicla- 
rensis, Abbot  of  Biclaro  or  Valclara,  a  strong  partisan 
of  the  Catholic  party,  and  as  such  a  sufferer  under 
Leovigild,  regards  Hermenigild  merely  in  the  light  of 
a  "  tyrant "  and  a  "  rebel."  Another  contemporary, 
Bishop  Isidore  of  Seville,  though  brother  to  the  Bishop 
Leander  who  had  given  his  support  to  Hermenigild, 
speaks  of  him  in  the  same  terms,  as  a  "  tyrant "  and 
"  rebel."  Paul  of  Merida,  a  fanatical  opponent  of  Leovi- 
gild, alters  a  sentence  that  he  was  quoting  from  the 
Dialogues  of  Gregory  I,  in  order  to  avoid  calling  Her- 


KING  LEO  VI GILD.  129 

menigild   a   martyr.      The    character   of  martyr  -was 
imposed  upon  him  by  one  Pope,  Gregory  L,  and  that 
of  saint  by  another,  Sixtus  V.     Gregory  I.  has  written 
his  story.     The  first  part  of  the  account  was  derived 
from  Leander  when  he  fled  from  Seville  to  Constan- 
tinople at  the  time  of  the  siege  of  Seville,  during  the 
first  rebellion   of  Hermenigild ;    the  latter  part  of  it 
came  from  the  reports  of  some  anonymous  Spanish 
travellers.     These  men  reported  that  the  king  was  so 
irritated  at  his  son's  constancy  in   the  Catholic  faith 
that   he  kept   him   in   prison   loaded  with  chains,   to 
which  the  prince  himself  added  sackcloth ;  that  he  sent 
to  him  an  Arian  bishop  with  the  promise  that,  if  he 
would  receive  the  communion  at  his  hands,  he  should 
be  restored  to  favour;   that   the  prince  had   been  so 
well  taught  by  his  wife  that  he  drove  away  the  bishop, 
telling  him  that  he  was  a  minister  of  the  devil  and 
only  knew    how  to   guide    souls    to    hell,   where    the 
bishop  might  expect  the  pains  prepared  for  him ;  that 
on  hearing  this,  the  king  sent  some  of  his  ministers, 
and  among  them  Sisbert,  to  put  him  to  death,  which 
Sisbert  did  by  spHtting  his  head  with  an  axe;  that 
angels   then  came  and  sang  hymns  and  psalms  over 
his  body,  and  heavenly  fights  drove  away  the  darkness 
of  the  prison.      Hence  he  was   truly  a  martyr,  and 
might  be  venerated  by  all  the  faithful.     If  this  story 
were  true  even  in  its  main  outfine,  it  is  impossible  that 
the  Spanish  chroniclers  and  writers  should  have  been 
ignorant  of  it;  and  it  is  incredible   that  they  should 
have  omitted  all  mention  of  it  and  branded  Hermeni- 
gild as  a  rebel  and  a  tyrant,  when  they  were  them- 
selves bitter  enemies  of  Leovigild   and  sympathisers 


I30        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

with  suffering  undergone  in  the  maintenance  of  the 
faith  for  which  Pope  Gregory  represents  Hermenigild 
to  have  died  a  martyr.  It  is  easier  to  beheve  that 
Gregory  was  misled  by  his  anonymous  informants. 
Even  Gregory  of  Tours,  whose  feelings  were  all  on 
the  anti-Arian  side,  describes  Hermenigild  as  a  poor 
wretch,  that  did  not  know  that  God's  judgment  was 
hanging  over  him  for  conspiracy  against  the  life  of 
his  father,  heretical  though  the  father  might  be. 

The  Mozarabic  Liturgy  does  not  recognise  Her- 
menigild, nor  does  any  one  speak  of  him  as  a  martyr 
except  Pope  Gregory,  and  after  him  Paulus  Diaconus  ^ 
and  a  writer  named  Valerius,^  until  the  ninth  century, 
when,  on  the  authority  of  Pope  Gregory's  tale,  his 
name  was  admitted  into  the  martyrologies  of  Ado 
and  Usuardus.  In  1585,  Philip  II.,  thinking  the  merits 
of  an  opponent  of  heresy  to  outweigh  the  ill-deserts 
of  a  rebel  prince,  pressed  Sixtus  V.,  nothing  loth,  to 
canonise  him  for  Spain.  Urban  VIII.  extended  his 
ai/ltis  to  the  whole  Roman  Church,  and  his  name  is 
found  in  the  present  Roman  Breviary.  Morales,  a 
Spanish  historian  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
can  certify  of  his  own  knowledge  to  his  being  a  saint, 
for,  being  always  devoted  to  him,  he  received  many 
mercies  through  him,  and  among  others  the  preserva- 
tion of  his  life ;  for  having  fallen  into  the  water  at 
Port  S.  Mary,  and  not  being  able  to  swim  owing  to 
his  cloak  which  impeded  him,  he  ''  called  on  God  and 
that  glorious  prince"  to  save  his  soul  if  his  life  was 
lost.  He  sank  twice,  and  the  third  time  that  he  rose 
a  sailor  stretched  out  a  pole  to  him  from  a  neighbour- 

1  //is^.  Lon^ohard.^  iii.  31.  ^  De  vera  sceculi  sapientia. 


KING  LEO  VI GILD.  131 

ing  boat,  and  he  was  saved;  but  when  he  came  to 
look  at  this  pole  afterwards,  he  found  that  it  was  so 
short  that  it  could  not  have  reached  him.  He  has  no 
doubt  that  the  saint  lengthened  the  pole  for  the  occa- 
sion— the  more,  as  he  had  become  possessed  the  same 
year  of  a  coin  bearing  the  image  of  the  holy  prince. 
He  did  not  even  lose  his  cloak,  and  found  himself  still 
wrapped  up  in  it.^  Morales  is  a  writer  on  Spanish 
history  whose  works  still  hold  their  place  as  classics. 

The  work  of  Paul  of  Merida,  an  author  of  the  next 
century,  called  Be  Vita  et  Mir actilis  Patrwn  Eineriten- 
siiiin,  shows  so  graphically  the  bitterness  that  arose 
after  the  death  of  Hermenigild  between  the  Arian  and 
the  CathoHc  factions,  that  it  may  be  well  to  let  him  speak 
in  his  own  words.  It  will  be  seen  at  once  from  his 
style  that  he  was  a  monk,  and  it  will  help  us  to  realise 
the  religious  state  of  the  country  if  we  see  what  was 
the  monastic  conception  in  the  middle  of  the  seventh 
century  of  the  ecclesiastical  events  of  the  previous 
century.  The  violence  and  exaggeration  which  char- 
acterise the  story,  the  inability  of  the  author  to  see 
anything  good  in  an  opponent,  or  anything  but  per- 
fection in  members  of  his  own  party,  are  in  themselves 
instructive.  And  yet  it  is  this  man,  we  may  note,  who, 
being  a  Spaniard,  refused  to  follow  Pope  Gregory  in 
calling  Hermenigild  a  martyr. 

^'  Leovigild,  the  fiercest  and  most  cruel  king  of  the 
Visigoths,  stirred  by  diabolical  hatred,  again  and  again 
sent  messengers  to  the  most  holy  Masona  commanding 
him  to  give  up  the  Catholic  faith  and  turn  to  the  Arian 
heresy  with  all  his  flock.      But  God's  servant  made 

1  La  Coronica  General  de  Espana,  lib.  xi.  p.  79.     Alcala,  1577. 


answer  with  the  greatest  constancy,  and  sent  back 
word  twice  and  thrice  to  the  king  that  he  would  never 
rehnquish  the  true  faith  which  he  had  once  embraced, 
and  at  the  same  time  he  rebuked  the  king  for  his 
Arianism  and  rejected  his  heresy  with  the  reproaches 
that  it  deserved.  So  when  his  messengers  returned,  the 
king  began  to  try  to  cajole  him  by  persuasions  and 
promises  of  rewards  if  he  could  anyhow  bend  him  to 
accept  his  superstition;  but  he  despised  his  persua- 
sions and  rejected  his  gifts  as  so  much  filth,  and 
stood  up  with  a  manly  spirit  for  the  Catholic  faith. 
And  he  would  not  be  silent  in  respect  to  the  King's 
heresy,  lest  by  silence  he  might  seem  to  give  consent, 
but  he  resisted  his  madness  with  all  his  force,  and 
filled  the  air  with  the  clang  of  the  truth.  Finding  him- 
self labouring  in  vain,  the  king  fell  into  a  fury  and 
tried  to  terrify  him,  thinking  that  threats  might  suc- 
ceed where  cajolery  had  failed ;  but  the  holy  man  was 
not  affected  either  by  his  terrors  or  by  his  soft-speak- 
ing, but,  fighting  bravely  against  the  savage  tyrant, 
continued  to  defend  the  right.  Finding  this,  the  cruel 
tyrant,  who  was  altogether  a  vessel  of  wrath  and  made 
up  of  vices  and  a  sprig  of  damnation,  whose  breast  was 
occupied  by  truculent  heresy,  and  whom  the  cunning 
serpent  kept  as  his  captive,  who  gave  to  his  subjects 
bitter  for  sweet  and  rough  for  smooth  and  poison 
instead  of  health,  appoints  as  Bishop  of  the  Arian 
faction  in  Merida,  for  the  purpose  of  exciting  faction 
fights  and  for  the  overthrow  of  the  holy  Masona  and 
the  whole  city,  one  Sunna,  a  pestilent  fellow,  who 
defended  the  Arian  heresy  in  all  its  depravity.  Sunna 
was  a  man  who  favoured  false  doctrine,  an  ill-looking 


KING  LEOVIGILD.  133 

man,  with  a  stern  brow,  harsh  eyes,  a  hateful  appear- 
ance, awkward  motion — a  man  crooked  in  his  mind,  of 
depraved  morals,  of  a  lying  tongue,  given  to  foul  words 
— turgid  outside,  but  with  nothing  inside ;  holding  his 
head  high,  but  empty  of  mind;  of  proud  appearance, 
but  without  a  virtue  within ;  every  way  ill-formed, 
wanting  in  what  was  good,  wealthy  in  all  that  was 
very  bad — addicted  to  sin,  obnoxious  to  eternal  death 
— this  preacher  of  heresy  came  to  Merida,  and  by  the 
command  of  the  king  took  possession  of  some  basilicas, 
with  all  their  belongings,  daring  to  draw  them  away 
from  the  authority  of  their  own  bishop  to  himself,  and 
he  began  to  bark  out  rabid  w^ords  against  the  servant 
of  God,  and  to  pour  out  foul  threats  with  noisy  cries. 
But  the  approved  servant  of  God  was  not  terrified  by 
the  threats  of  the  scoundrel,  nor  alarmed  by  the  turbu- 
lence of  the  rascal's  wrath.  Nor  did  the  tempest  raised 
by  the  madness  of  the  abandoned  man  turn  him  from 
his  course,  but  he  stood  Hke  a  strong  wall  for  the 
defence  of  the  holy  faith,  immovable  against  all  storms. 
The  infidel  bishop  was  not  able,  as  he  wished,  to  deliver 
over  the  servant  of  the  Lord  and  the  rest  of  the  faithful 
to  martyrdom,  but  trusting  in  the  favour  of  the  king, 
he  made  an  attempt  on  the  basilica  of  the  most  holy 
virgin  Eulalia,  in  order  to  withdraw  it  from  under  its 
own  bishops  and  devote  it  to  the  Arian  heresy.  Holy 
Bishop  Masona,  and  all  the  people  with  him,  making  a 
vehement  resistance,  the  false  Bishop  Sunna  wrote  a 
number  of  accusations  to  the  aforesaid  king  against 
the  holy  man,  and  suggested  that  the  basilica  which  he 
wished  for  should  be  taken  away  from  the  Catholics 
and  handed  over  to  him  by  the  royal  command.  The 
king  gave  sentence  that  the  judges  should  take  their 


134        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN, 

seat  in  the  court  of  the  church,  that  both  the  bishops 
should  appear  before  them  and  hold  a  disputation,  each 
in  turn  defending  his  statements  out  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures and  bringing  forward  witnesses,  and  whichever 
prevailed  should  have  the  possession  of  the  Church  of 
S.  Eulalia.  Hearing  of  this  decree,  Masona,  humble 
man,  went  straight  to  the  Basilica  of  S.  Eulalia,  and 
spent  three  days  and  three  nights  with  tears  and  fast- 
ing stretched  upon  the  pavement  before  the  altar  where 
the  venerable  body  of  the  holy  martyr  is  buried.  Then 
on  the  third  day  he  walked  to  the  court  and  waited  for 
the  vile  Arian  bishop  and  the  judges.  At  last  the 
Arian  bishop  entered,  swelling  with  pride.  The  judges 
took  their  seats;  the  two  bishops  began  to  have  a 
mighty  contest  of  words,  but  the  fleshly  mass  could 
not  anyhow  resist  the  wisdom  of  God  and  the  Holy 
Spirit,  who  spoke  by  the  mouth  of  his  servant,  Bishop 
Masona.  .  .  .  Then  all  the  Orthodox  and  Catholics, 
seeing  their  foes  prostrate  and  overcome,  gave  praise 
unto  God,  and  with  one  consent  they  hastened  with 
their  victorious  prelate,  Masona,  to  the  basilica  of  the 
glorious  virgin  Eulalia,  and  entering  the  temple,  shouted 
with  loudest  cries  of  joy  and  gave  infinite  thanks  to 
Almighty  God,  who  at  the  prayers  of  their  holy  virgin 
had  raised  His  servants  aloft  and  annihilated  their 
enemies. 

"  So  the  heretical  Bishop  Sunna,  whose  stony  heart 
the  ancient  enemy  had  hardened,  by  God's  permission, 
like  Pharaoh's,  seeing  himself  defeated  on  all  hands, 
began  to  accuse  the  blessed  Masona  in  the  ears  of  the 
Arian  prince  Leovigild,  with  many  charges.  At  length, 
the  evil  spirit  drove  the  Arian  king  to  summon  the 
holy  man  from  his  See,  and  to  desire  him  to  present 


KING  LEOVIGILD.  135 

himself  before   him.  ...  On    his    arrival   at  Toledo, 
after  he  had  been  introduced  into  the  presence  of  the 
tyrant,  the  king  attempted  to  frighten  him  into  embrac- 
ing the  Arian    heresy.     The   man   of  God   bore   the 
insults  offered  him  with  patience,  but  boldly  resisted 
the  tyrant  in  the  attacks  which  the  mad  dog  made  on 
the  Catholic  faith.     Then  the  king  demanded  of  him 
with   threats  to  give  him   the  tunic  of  the  most  holy 
virgin  Eulaha  for  an  Arian   basilica  in  Toledo.     The 
man  of  God  answered,  *  Rest  assured  that  I  will  never 
stain  my  soul  with  the  filth  of  Arian  superstition.     I 
will  not  deliver  the  tunic  of  my  lady  Eulalia  into  the 
sacrilegious  hands  of  heretics,  not  even  to  be  touched 
with  the  tips  of  their  fingers.'     Hearing  this,  the  pro- 
fane   tyrant    became    frenzied,   and    sent    men    in   the 
utmost  haste  to  Merida  to  bring  the  holy  tunic.     Not 
being  able  to  find  it,  they  returned  empty  to  the  king, 
on  which  the  devil  began  to  gnash  his  teeth  against 
the  man  of  God,  and  when  the  latter  was  brought  into 
his  presence  he  said   to  him,  ^  Either  tell  me  where 
that  which  I  am  looking  for  is,  or,  if  you  will  not  speak, 
understand  that  you  will  first  have  to  suffer,  and  then 
be  sent  into  exile,  where  you  will  die  a  cruel  death.' 
The  man  of  God  said,  '  I  do  not  fear  you,  nor  will  I 
give  you  what  you  ask  for,  but  know  this,  that  I  burnt 
the  tunic  and  reduced  it  to  ashes,  and  mixed  the  ashes 
with  water  and  drank  them,'  and  stroking  his  stomach 
with  his  hand,  he  said,  ^  Understand  for  certain  that  I 
reduced  it  to  ashes  and  drank  it,  and  see,  it  is  here  in 
(on)  my  stomach,  and  I  will  never  give  it  to  you.'     This 
he  said  because,  without  any  one's  knowledge,  he  had 
folded  it  in  linen,  and  fastened  it  round  his  stomach 
under  his    clothes,   and   so   God   alone  knew  that  he 


136        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

wore  it,  for  God  blinded  the  eyes  of  the  king  and 
the  court,  so  that  no  one  understood  how  the  man  of 
God  was  carrying  the  matter. 

''  While  he  was  thus  speaking,  and  the  sky  was  quite 
clear,  there  was  a  loud  clap  of  thunder,  so  that  King 
Leovigild  fell  trembling  from  his  throne  upon  the  earth 
with  great  terror.  Then  the  man  of  God  with  great 
exultation  calmly  said,  ^  If  you  are  a  king,  see  there 
is  a  King  whom  it  is  proper  to  fear,  for  He  isn't  such 
as  you  are.'  The  tyrant  growled  out  his  impious  sen- 
tence, ^  Let  Masona,  the  enemy  of  our  person  and  our 
faith  and  our  rehgion,  be  at  once  banished.'  Imme- 
diately his  ministers  carried  him  off,  and  placed  him 
on  a  mettlesome  horse,  in  order  that  he  might  fall  off 
and  break  his  neck,  for  the  horse  was  so  wild  that  no 
one  dared  to  mount  him,  and  the  king  looked  out  of 
a  window  expecting  to  see  the  holy  man  fall ;  but  the 
holy  priest,  having  made  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord,  mounted  the  wild  horse,  and  the 
Lord  made  him  as  gentle  as  a  lamb. 

*'  So  the  holy  prelate  Masona,  with  only  three  boys  as 
companions,  came  to  the  appointed  place  of  his  banish- 
ment, and  was  placed  in  a  monastery.  A  false  priest 
named  Nepope  was  substituted  in  his  place  at  Merida — 
a  profane  man,  a  servant  of  the  devil,  an  angel  of 
Satan,  a  forerunner  of  Antichrist,  and  he  was  bishop  of 
another  city.  .  .  .  After  three  3^ears  and  more,  on 
Masona's  going  into  the  church  of  the  monastery  for 
prayer,  there  suddenly  appeared  to  him  above  the 
altar  the  most  holy  virgin  Eulalia,  in  the  appearance 
of  a  white  dove.  She  deigned  to  console  her  faithful 
servant,  addressing  him  as  an  affectionate  mistress, 
and  then  said  to  him,   '  Now  it  is  time  for  you  to  go 


KING  LEOVIGILD.  137 

back  to  your  city,  and  to  do  me  service  as  before.' 
So  saying,  she  flew  swiftly  from  his  sight.  Then, 
without  delay,  the  glorious  virgin  avenged  the  wrongs 
of  her  servant.  One  night,  when  the  impious  tyrant 
Leovigild  was  in  bed,  she  stood  over  him,  and  beat  his 
sides,  one  after  the  other,  with  a  whip,  saying,  ^  Give 
me  back  my  servant ;  if  you  do  not  give  him  back  at 
once,  you  shall  suffer  severe  punishment.'  The  poor 
man  had  been  so  beaten,  that  when  he  awoke,  he 
showed  his  bruises  with  floods  of  tears,  and  declared 
that  he  had  been  beaten  for  the  wrongs  which  he  had 
done  to  that  holy  bishop ;  for  he  knew  who  it  was  who 
had  struck  him,  her  name,  her  dress,  and  the  beauty 
of  her  countenance.  He  therefore  gave  orders  that 
the  man  of  God  might  be  allowed  again  to  return  to 
govern  his  church ;  and  when  Masona  declared  that  he 
would  remain  where  he  was,  he  again  and  again 
besought  him  to  return. 

^'  When  Nepope,  who  had  been  substituted  in  his 
place,  heard  that  he  had  returned,  he  fled  to  the  city  in 
which  he  had  formerly  been  bishop.  .  .  .  And  as  a 
thirsty  man  in  burning  heat  is  eager  for  fresh  streams, 
so  the  man  of  God  betook  himself  to  the  church  of  the 
holy  Eulalia  with  a  burning  soul  and  a  fervent  spirit, 
and  when  he  had  there  poured  out  the  affection  of  his 
soul,  he  entered  the  city  glorying  in  the  Lord,  while  all 
around  him  rejoiced,  for  thus  the  Church  of  Merida 
recovered  its  ruler,  glorying  in  its  happiness,  for  it 
rejoiced  that  he  that  was  sick  had  found  healing,  that 
he  that  was  oppressed  had  found  consolation,  that  he 
that  was  hungry  was  filled.  Enough  !  the  Lord  gave 
abundant  favours  to  the  Church  of  Merida;  for  the 
presence  of  the  holy  man  removed  the  famines,  pesti- 


138        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

lences,  and  unusual  troubles  of  the  city,  which  had 
been  caused  by  the  absence  of  its  pastor.  Leovigild, 
therefore,  who  did  not  so  much  govern  as  ruin  Spain, 
leaving  no  crime  or  wickedness  undone,  deserting  God, 
or  rather  deserted  by  God,  miserably  lost  his  kingdom 
and  his  life.  By  God's  judgment  he  was  seized  by  a 
grievous  malady,  lost  his  foul  life,  and  gained  eternal 
death,  and  his  soul,  painfully  delivered  from  his  body, 
detained  in  perpetual  punishment  in  everlasting  chains 
of  darkness,  is  kept,  as  he  deserves,  to  burn  for  ever 
in  boiling  waves  of  pitch." 

The  above  extract — it  is  given  in  an  abridged  form 
— is  full  of  instruction  to  the  student  of  Spanish  Church 
history.  It  shows  first  that  Primitive  Catholicism  was 
now,  at  the  end  of  the  sixth  century  and  the  beginning 
of  the  seventh,  sinking  down  towards  Roman  Catholi- 
cism. Trust  in  the  saints  had,  we  see,  become  habitual, 
and  there  is  a  general  mediaeval  air  about  the  story 
which  contrasts  with  the  wholesomer  atmosphere  of 
early  Christianity.^      Next,  it  shows  how  fierce  and 

1  This  is  illustrated  by  another  story  of  Paul  of  Merida  respecting  a 
previous  abbot  of  his  monastery  : — "  They  say  that  many  years  ago,  in 
the  time  of  Leovigild,  king  of  the  Visigoths,  there  came  from  Africa 
into  the  province  of  Mesopotamia  our  Abbot  Nunctus.  After  a  time,  in 
order  to  pay  his  devotions  to  the  most  holy  virgin  Eulalia,  he  went 
into  her  church  in  which  the  holy  body  rests,  but,  as  it  is  said,  he 
avoided  the  sight  of  a  woman  like  an  adder's  bite  ;  not  that  he  despised 
the  sex,  but  he  was  afraid  of  incurring  temptation  by  looking  on 
them,  so  that  wherever  he  went  he  desired  one  monk  to  walk  before 
him  and  another  behind  him,  that  a  woman  might  never  look  upon 
him.  When  he  went  into  the  church  of  the  holy  virgin  and  martyr 
Eulalia,  he  earnestly  besought  the  Rev.  Deacon  Redemptus,  who  had 
charge  of  it,  that  whenever  he  went  into  the  church  from  his  cell  at 
night  for  prayer,  he  would  so  arrange  that  no  woman  should  see  him. 
When  he  had  spent  some  days  in  the  church,  a  noble  and  holy  widow 
named  Eusebia  desired  anxiously  to  see  him,  but  he  would  not  have 
himself  seen  by  her.  Again  and  again  people  asked  him  to  allow  her 
to  see  him,  but  he  would  not  agree  at  all  to  their  request;  she  there- 


KING  LEOVIGILD.  139 

dogged  was  the  conflict  between  Arianism  and  this 
Catholicism.  When  the  Northern  nations  first  made 
themselves  masters  of  Spain,  they  held  themselves  aloof 
from  the  conquered  Provincials.  They  scorned  to 
interfere  with  their  subjects'  form  of  religion,  but  it  was 
not  theirs.  They  had  themselves  inherited  the  faith  of 
the  enemies  and  assailants  of  the  Empire,  while  the  old 
inhabitants  of  the  Peninsula  naturally  clung  to  the  form 
of  faith  that  they  had  imbibed  from  contact  with  Im- 
perialism. They  might  have  their  religion,  and  the 
Goths  and  Suevi  should  have  their  own.  Let  them 
stand  side  by  side.  But  by  degrees  the  old  Spanish 
or  Roman  element  began  first  to  affect,  then  to  absorb 
the  Gothic  element.  The  old  Provincials  were  admitted 
as  equals  into  the  ruling  caste.  They  brought  their 
religion  with  them.  The  Goths,  tolerant  and  indif- 
ferent, became  themselves  imbued  with  it.  The  very 
man  who  entered  into  conflict  with  Leovigild  at  Merida, 
Masona,  Vv^as  himself  a  Goth  of  noble  family.  The 
Suevi  in  a  body  had  embraced  Catholicism  at  the  bid- 
ding of  their  king,  forming  a  compact  mass  of  Spanish 

fore  conspired  with  the  aforesaid  Deacon  Redemptus  that  at  the  end 
of  matins,  whilst  he  was  returning  from  the  church  to  his  cell,  she 
should  stand  where  she  could  not  possibly  be  seen,  and  that  a  very 
bright  light  of  candles  should  be  thrown  on  the  holy  man,  that  she 
might  at  least  see  him  from  a  distance.  And  this  was  done.  But 
when,  without  his  knowing  it,  a  woman's  eyes  fell  upon  him,  he  threw 
himself  on  the  ground  with  a  deep  groan,  as  if  he  had  been  struck  by  a 
heavy  stone.  Presently  he  said  to  the  Deacon  Redemptus,  '  The  Lord 
forgive  you,  brother  I  What  have  you  done  ?  '  And  after  that  he  went 
away  and  betook  himself  with  a  few  brethren  into  the  desert,  and  there 
built  himself  a  very  poor  cottage"  (chap.  iii.).  Gams  hesitates  to  be- 
lieve in  the  genuineness  of  this  story,  and  thinks  it  to  be  of  a  later  date 
than  the  seventh  century  {Kirchengeschichte,  vol.  iii.).  The  eleventh  and 
twelfth  centuries  were  so  fruitful  of  forgeries  in  Spain  that  the  possi- 
bility of  a  document  being  composed  at  that  date  must  always  be  kept 
before  the  mind. 


I40        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

Catholics   of  Northern    blood.       The    success    of    the 
Prankish   arms  in  France  not  only  made  Catholicism 
respectable  in  the  eyes  of  the  German  tribes,  but  led 
them  to  regard  it  as  a  reHgion  which  might  be  their 
own,  not  merely  the  religion  of  those  whom  they  looked 
down  upon  as  inferior  to  themselves  in  prowess.     The 
Church  of  the  conquered  natives  in   Spain  had  been 
allowed  from  the  beginning  of  the  Gothic  invasion  to 
keep  its  own  organisation,  and  the  leading  members  of 
that  Church — more  learned  than  their  haughty  masters 
—the  Leanders,  Fulgentiuses,  and  Isidores — supported 
the  efforts  of  the  Prankish  princesses  who  were  intro- 
duced by  marriage  into  the  royal  family  of  Spain  in 
detaching  individual  members  of  the  Arian  congrega- 
tions from  their  hereditary  faith  and  persuading  them 
to  go  over  to  the  rival  Church.     Hence  arose  that  ex- 
ceeding bitterness  which  is  caused  by  fear.    The  Goths 
found  their  adversaries  drawing  off  one  here  and  another 
there ;  they  felt  the  pain  and  annoyance  thus  introduced 
into  families,  and  they  trembled  for  their  Church,  of 
which,  as  an  hereditary  institution,  they  were  proud. 
The  marriage  of  Ingunthis  with  Hermenigild,  and  its 
consequence  in  Hcrmenigild's  rebellion,  brought  matters 
to  an  issue.     Hermenigild  stood  forth  as  the  champion 
of  Catholicism  with  his  CathoHc  allies,  the  Byzantines 
and  the  Suevi,  and  with  the  sympathy  of  the  Pranks.     It 
happened  that  a  strong  man  occupied  the  Gothic  throne, 
and  he  put  down  the  conspiracy.     But  what  was  he  to 
do  next  ?     He  tried— not  persecution,  it  could  hardly 
be  called  by  that  name— but  he  tried  to  bring  back  or 
to  bring  over  to  Arianism   by   the  exertion  of  royal 
influence    and    secular   force   those   who    had    ranged 
themselves  in  the  anti-Arian  camp.       With  some   he 


KING  LEOVIGILD.  141 

succeeded,  but  their  adherence  was  not  worth  having. 
With  others,  like  Masona,  he  failed,  and  when  he  failed 
the  result  was  increased  bitterness  and  repulsion.^ 

So  matters  stood  when  the  great  king  died.  Pope 
Gregory  has  related,  on  the  authority  of  his  anony- 
mous informants  from  Spain,  that  before  he  died  the 
king  repented  the  attitude  that  he  had  taken  up  and 
wished  to  die  in  communion  with  the  Catholics.  This 
story  is  commonly  told  of  men  in  like  case,  and  gene- 
rally when  examined  into  is  found  to  be  false.  That 
it  was  not  true  in  the  case  of  Leovigild  is  sufficiently 
proved  by  the  silence  of  the  Spanish  historians  and 
by  the  account  of  his  death  given  above  by  Paul  of 
Merida.  Paul  had  before  him  Gregory's  statement,  for 
in  the  very  next  sentence,  he  uses  Gregory's  words  on 
the  accession  of  Reccared  (only  altering  the  assertion 
that  Hermenigild  was  a  martyr  ^),  and  yet,  with  that 
statement  before  his  eyes,  he  consigns  Leovigild  to 
eternal  chains  and  torments  and  boihng  pitch  in  the 
nether  world  for  having  died  a  heretic. 

Leovigild's  seems  to  have  been  a  supreme  effort 
to  maintain  the  Gothic  kingdom  in  its  old  position  of 

^  As  early  as  the  year  580  Johannes  Biclarensis  tells  us  that  Leovi- 
gild had  tried  to  make  the  passage  from  the  Catholic  faith  to  the  Arian 
easy  by  assembling  an  Arian  Synod  and  declaring,  "  De  Romana 
religione  ad  nostram  Catholicam  Fidem  venientes  non  debere  baptizari 
sed  tantumundo  per  manus  impositionem  et  communionis  percep- 
tionem  ablui,  et  gloriam  Patri  per  Filium  in  Spiritu  Sancto  dari." 
"This,"  the  worthy  Abbot  adds,  "had  the  effect  of  drawing  over  many 
of  ours,  more  from  worldy  motives  than  spiritual  impulses  "  {Chronicon). 

-  Pope  Gregory's  words  are,  "  Post  cujus  mortem  Reccaredus  rex 
non  patrem  perfidum  ?,ed  fratretn  viartyrem  sequens  ab  Arianas  hceresis 
pravitate  conversus  est"  {Dial.  iii.  31).  Paul  writes,  "Post  cujus 
crudelissimam  mortem  venerabilis  vir  Reccaredus  Princeps  .  .  .  non 
patrem  perfidum  sed  Christian  Domimim  sequens,  ab  Arianae  haeresis 
pravitate  conversus  est  "(cap.  xvi.).  Or  did  Gregory  so  write,  and 
were  his  words  afterwards  altered  for  the  honour  of  the  Church's  martyr  ? 


142        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

superiority,  ruling  over,  not  associating  itself  with,  the 
Provincials,  whom  his  ancestors  had  subjected.  With 
this  purpose,  he  engaged  in  home  and  foreign  war ;  he 
defeated  and  put  to  death  his  rebel  son ;  he  restrained 
the  power  of  his  nobles;  he  elevated  the  monarchy, 
encompassing  it  with  a  state  unknown  before ;  he 
transferred  the  royal  residence  to  a  new  capital,  from 
Seville  to  Toledo ;  he  corrected  and  made  more  per- 
fect the  Visigothic  code  of  laws  drawn  up  by  Euric ;  he 
attempted  to  make  the  succession  to  the  throne  here- 
ditary instead  of  elective  by  associating  his  son  Recca- 
red  with  himself  in  the  government.  His  assaults  on 
the  Catholic  party  were  rather  political  than  religious. ^ 
The  great  King  held  his  own,  but  what  v/ould  be  the 
policy  of  his  successor  ? 

^  The  conclusion  of  the  story  of  the  Abbot  Nunctus,  the  earlier  part 
of  which  we  have  given  above  (p.  139),  shows  that  Leovigild  was  free 
from  religious  bigotry.  "  The  Abbot  having  fixed  his  abode  in  the 
desert,  and  there  becoming  famous  for  his  virtues,  the  report  of  him 
reached  the  ears  of  King  Leovigild,  who,  though  he  was  an  Arian, 
nevertheless,  in  order  to  commend  himself  to  the  Lord  by  the  Abbot's 
prayers,  ordered  food  and  clothes  to  be  given  to  him  with  his  brethren. 
The  man  of  God  refused  to  receive  them,  but  on  the  person  who  had 
been  sent  to  him  by  the  king  saying,  '  You  ought  not  to  despise  your 
son's  offering,'  he  at  last  took  them.  After  some  days  the  men  who 
lived  in  that  place  said  to  one  another,  '  Let  us  go  and  see  what  kind 
of  man  this  master  of  ours  is  to  whom  we  have  been  given  ;'  and  when 
they  came  and  saw  him  in  a  torn  and  dirty  dress,  they  despised  him, 
and  said  among  themselves,  '  We  had  better  die  than  be  serfs  to  such 
a  master  as  that.'  And  some  days  afterwards,  when  the  holy  man  had 
gone  into  the  woods  to  pasture  a  few  sheep,  they  found  him  alone,  and 
broke  his  neck  and  killed  him.  After  no  long  time  the  murderers  were 
caught  and  brought  in  chains  before  King  Leovigild,  and  he  was  told 
that  these  were  the  men  who  had  killed  the  servant  of  God.  And  he, 
though  he  did  not  hold  the  right  faith,  nevertheless  pronounced  a  right 
sentence,  saying,  '  Take  off  their  bonds  and  let  them  go,  and  if  they 
have  killed  the  servant  of  God,  let  the  Lord  avenge  the  death  of  His 
servant  without  our  taking  vengeance  on  them.'  Accordingly,  they 
were  set  free,  but  immediately  devils  seized  them  and  afflicted  them  for 
many  days,  until  they  shook  their  lives  out  of  llieir  bodies  by  a  cruel 
deatli." — De  Vita  P.  P.  F.mcrttensium,  chap.  iii. 


CHAPTER  XL 

KING  RECCARED  AND  THE  THIRD  COUNCIL 
OF  TOLEDO. 

When  Reccared  came  to  the  throne  in  586;  he  was 
the  centre  of  the  hopes  of  each  of  the  warring  factions 
in  the  state.  He  was  Leovigild's  son,  but  he  was 
Hermenigild's  brother.  Which  party  would  he  side 
with,  or  could  he  fuse  both  in  one  ?  Reccared's 
tendencies  did  not  long  remain  doubtful.  They  were 
unmistakably  indicated  by  the  selection  of  Leander  as 
his  ecclesiastical  adviser  and  minister.  Leander  was 
the  man  who  had  induced  Hermenigild  to  repudiate 
Arianism,  if  he  had  not  instigated  him  to  rebel  against 
his  father.  During  the  siege  of  Seville,  he  had  gone 
to  Constantinople  to  get  help  for  Hermenigild,  and 
had  remained  outside  of  Spain  until  the  death  of 
Leovigild.  He  was  the  eldest  brother  in  a  family 
which  did  more  than  any  other  to  establish  Catholicism 
in  Spain.  His  brothers  were  Fulgentius,  Bishop  of 
Ecija,  and  Isidore,  who  was  his  own  successor  in  the 
See  of  Seville.  His  sister  was  Florentina,  who  became 
a  member,  if  not  the  superior,  of  a  nunnery,  for  which 
Leander  composed  a  Regtila  or  Rule.  Another  indica- 
tion of  Reccared's  feelings  was  the  execution  of  Sisbert, 
who  had  slain  Hermenigild.     In  less  than  a  year  after 

his  accession  the   new  king  declared   his  conversion, 

143 


144         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

and  summoning  the  Arian  bishops  to  his  presence, 
induced  many  of  them  to  follow  his  example.  It  was 
not  to  be  expected  that  such  a  step  would  be  taken 
without  creating  some  antagonism.  Insurrections  fol- 
lowed— one  in  the  French  province  of  Spain,  raised 
by  Bishop  Athaloc ;  another  by  Sunna,  who  had  been 
the  intruded  Arian  Bishop  of  Merida.  Sunna  was 
joined  in  his  conspiracy  by  Count  Seggo,  and  by 
Witteric,  who  afterwards  became  king.  Sunna's  first 
desire  was  to  kill  his  rival  Masona,  and  Witteric  un- 
dertook to  stab  him.  But  Witteric's  courage  failed ; 
he  could  not,  so  he  said,  draw  his  sword,  which  miracu- 
lously adhered  to  its  sheath,  and  instead  of  slaughter- 
ing him,  he  made  confession  to  Masona  of  the  con- 
spiracy. Masona  gave  information  to  Duke  Claudius, 
who  seized  the  conspirators  and  held  them  at  the 
king's  pleasure.  Sunna  was  sentenced  to  banishment, 
and  transported  to  Mauritania.  Seggo  had  his  hands 
cut  off,  and  was  confined  to  Galicia.  Witteric's  con- 
fession earned  his  forgiveness.  Another  conspiracy 
was  headed  by  Reccared's  stepmother,  Queen  Gois- 
wintha,  which  was  discovered  and  frustrated. 

The  failure  of  these  attempts  strengthened  the  hands 
of  the  king,  and  in  the  third  year  of  his  reign,  A.D.  589, 
Reccared  summoned  the  Third  Council  of  Toledo — the 
most  important  Council  for  Spain  that  was  ever  held, 
and  of  greater  moment  to  the  whole  Church  Catholic 
than  any  Synod,  with  the  exception  of  the  first  four 
CEcumenical  Councils.  Its  effect  in  Spain  was  the 
repudiation  of  Arianism  and  the  establishment  of 
Catholicism.  Its  effect  on  the  Church  Catholic  has 
been  to  divide  it  into  two  camps,  or  at  least  to  give  a 


THE  THIRD  COUNCIL  OF  TOLEDO.  145 

war-cry  to  the  East  against  the  West,  and  to  the  West 
against  the  East,  never  to  be  silenced  until  the  inter- 
polation made  at  Toledo,  perhaps  unconsciously,  in  the 
Niceno-Constantinopolitan  Creed  is  either  withdrawn 
or  sanctioned  by  (Ecumenical  authority.  The  Council 
met  in  the  month  of  May,  and  the  king  desired  that 
the  first  three  days  should  be  spent  in  prayer  and  fast- 
ing. On  its  reassembling,  a  tome  or  book  presented 
in  the  king's  name  was  read,  in  which  Reccared 
declared  that  he  felt  himself  called  upon  to  recover  the 
Goths  to  the  true  faith.  He  anathematised  Arianism, 
and  all  who  should  after  their  conversion  return  to 
Arianism,  and  pronounced  in  favour  of  the  Councils  of 
Nicaea,  Constantinople,  Ephesus,  and  Chalcedon.  The 
tome  ended  with  the  Creeds  of  Nicaea  and  Constanti- 
nople, and  was  signed  by  the  king  himself  and  his 
Queen,  Badda  or  Baddo.  The  bishops  burst  into 
acclamations,  ''  Glory  to  God,  the  Father,  the  Son, 
and  the  Holy  Ghost,  who  provides  for  the  peace  and 
unity  of  His  Holy  Catholic  Church  !  Glory  to  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  has  gathered  together  out  of 
all  nations  a  Catholic  Church,  at  the  cost  of  His  own 
blood  !  Glory  to  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  has 
attached  so  illustrious  a  nation  to  the  unity  of  the 
true  faith,  and  has  made  one  flock  and  one  shepherd  ! 
Who  should  have  everlasting  reward  from  God  for 
this  except  our  Catholic  king,  Reccared  ?  Who  should 
have  an  everlasting  crown  from  God  except  our  ortho- 
dox king,  Reccared  ?  Who  should  have  present  and 
eternal  glory  except  our  God-loving  king,  Reccared  ? 
It  is  he  who  brings  a  new  people  into  the  Catholic 
Church !      May    he   indeed    have   the    reward   of  an 


146        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

apostle  who  has  fulfilled  the  office  of  an  apostle ! 
May  he  be  an  object  of  love  to  God  and  man,  who  has 
so  wonderfully  glorified  God  on  earth,  by  the  help 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who,  with  God  the  Father, 
liveth  and  reigneth  in  the  unity  of  the  Holy  Ghost  for 
ever  and  ever,  Amen  !  " 

One  of  the  Catholic  bishops  then  rose  by  appoint- 
ment, and  addressing  the  newly  converted,  exhorted 
them  to  confess  aloud  the  faith  which  they  now  held, 
and  in  the  hearing  of  all  to  anathematise  that  which 
they  rejected ;  especially  they  were  to  condemn  the 
pestilential  Arian  heresy,  with  all  its  doctrines,  rules, 
offices,  fellowships,  and  documents.  They  replied  that 
they  had  already  done  this  when  they  followed  their 
glorious  lord,  King  Reccared,  in  going  over  to  the 
Church  of  God;  but  they  were  quite  willing  again 
to  do  as  they  were  required.  They  then  pronounced 
anathema  on  all  (i)  who  held  the  Arian  faith;  (2) 
who  denied  that  Christ  was  born  of  the  substance  of 
the  Father;  (3)  who  did  not  believe  in  the  Holy 
Ghost;  (4)  who  did  not  distinguish  between  the 
persons  of  the  Trinity ;  (5)  who  declared  the  Son  and 
the  Holy  Ghost  to  be  creatures ;  (6)  who  did  not 
believe  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost  to  be  of  one 
power,  substance,  and  eternity;  (7)  who  said  that 
the  Son  of  God  did  not  know  all  that  the  Father 
knew;  (8)  who  said  that  the  Son  and  Spirit  had  a 
beginning ;  (9)  who  said  that  the  Son  could  suffer  in 
His  divinity;  (10)  who  did  not  believe  the  Holy 
Ghost  to  be  Almighty;  (li)  who  held  any  other  faith 
than  that  which  was  universal  and  contained  in  the 
decrees  of  the  Four  Councils;  (12)  who  distinguished 


THE  THIRD  COUNCIL  OF  TOLEDO.  147 

the  glory  that  ought  to  be  given  to  the  Father,  the 
Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost;  (13)  who  did  not  believe 
the  Son  and  Holy  Ghost  to  be  equally  honoured  with 
the  Father;  (14)  who  would  not  say,  Glory  and 
honour  be  to  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy 
Ghost;  (15)  who  insisted  on  re-baptism;  (17)  who 
would  not  condemn  the  Council  of  Rimini;  (19)  who 
despised  the  Nicene  faith;  (20)  who  denied  that  the 
faith  of  Constantinople  was  true;  (21)  who  did  not 
hold  the  faith  of  Ephesus  and  Chalcedon;  (22)  who 
did  not  receive  all  Councils  agreeable  to  those  four 
Councils. 

Three  of  the  anathemas  have  a  more  local  colouring, 
the  i6th,  the  i8th,  and  the  23rd.  The  i6th  runs  as 
follows : — "  If  any  one  holds  as  true  the  detestable 
document  put  out  by  us  in  the  twelfth  year  of  King 
Leovigild,  containing  a  formula  by  which  the  Romans 
(z.e.f  the  old  Provincials)  may  pass  to  the  Arian  heresy, 
and  also  a  doxology  wrongly  expressed  by  us,  viz.. 
Glory  be  to  the  Father  through  the  Son  in  the  Holy 
Ghost,  let  him  be  anathema  for  ever."  The  i8th 
anathema  says  :  *^  We  confess  that  we  have  been  con- 
verted to  the  Catholic  Church  from  the  Arian  heresy 
with  all  our  heart,  and  all  our  soul,  and  all  our  mind. 
No  one  doubts  that  we  and  our  ancestors  have  erred 
in  the  Arian  heresy,  and  that  we  have  now  learned  the 
evangelical  and  apostolical  faith  within  the  Catholic 
Church.  Thereupon  we  hold,  confess,  and  honour  the 
holy  faith,  which  our  aforesaid  most  religious  lord  has 
declared  in  the  midst  of  the  Council  and  subscribed 
with  his  hand,  and  this  we  promise  to  teach  and  to 
preach  among  the  people.    This  is  the  true  faith,  which 


148        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

the  whole  Church  of  God  throughout  the  world  holds, 
and  is  therefore  counted  Catholic  and  approved.    Who- 
ever does  not  accept  or  has  not  accepted  this  faith,  let 
him  be  anathema  maranatha  at  the  coming  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ."     The  23rd  and  last  of  the  anathemas  is 
still  more  explicit  :  "  Therefore  with  our  own  hand  we 
have   subscribed   to   this   condemnation   of  the  Arian 
heresy  and  fellowship,  and  of  all  the   Councils   that 
favour  Arianism,  and  we  anathematise  them.     But  we 
have  subscribed  with  our  whole  heart,  and  our  whole 
soul,    and   our  whole   mind  the   constitutions   of  the 
holy  Councils  of  Nicaea,  Constantinople,  Ephesus,  and 
Chalcedon,  which  we  have  heard  with  gratified  ears, 
and  have  declared  to  be  true  by  our  confession.     We 
do  not  think  that  anything  can  be  more  lucid  for  the 
acknowledgment  of  the  truth  than  what  is  contained 
in  the  authoritative  documents  of  the  aforesaid  Councils. 
Nothing  can  be,  or  ever  shall  be,  demonstrated  with 
greater  truth  and  lucidity  about  the  Trinity  and  the 
unity  of  the   Father,   Son,   and    Holy  Ghost  than  is 
done  by  these.     In  these  Councils  the  truth  is  fully 
made  manifest,  and    is    believed    by  us   without  any 
doubtfulness,  about  the  mystery  of  the  incarnation  of 
the  only-begotten  Son  of  God  for  the  salvation  of  the 
human  race,  wherein  He  is  proved  to  have  truly  taken 
human  nature  without  the  contagion  of  sin,  and  the 
fulness  of  the  perfect   divinity  is  shown  to  abide  in 
Him,  seeing  that  neither  nature  is   lost,  and  out  of 
both    is  formed  the  one    Person    of  our   Lord  Jesus 
Christ.      If  any  one   tries  to  deprave,  or  corrupt,  or 
change  this  holy  faith,  or  to  go  out  from  or  be  sepa- 
rated from  this  same  faith  and  the  Catholic  communion 


THE  THIRD  COUNCIL  OF  TOLEDO.  149 

which  we  have  lately  obtained,  may  he  be  for  ever 
counted  guilty  of  the  crime  of  infidelity  before  God  and 
the  whole  world.  But  may  the  Holy  Catholic  Church 
flourish  throughout  the  world  in  perfect  peace,  and  be 
illustrious  for  its  learning,  holiness,  and  power.  May 
those  who  are  within  her  and  hold  her  faith  and  share 
her  fellowship  be  placed  at  the  right  hand  of  the 
Father,  and  hear  the  words,  '  Come,  ye  blessed  of  my 
Father,  receive  the  kingdom  which  is  prepared  for  you 
from  the  foundation  of  the  world ; '  and  may  those  who 
withdraw  from  her  and  destroy  her  faith  and  reject  her 
fellowship  hear  from  the  Divine  Mouth  on  the  day  of 
judgment,  '  Depart  from  me,  ye  cursed,  I  know  ye 
not.  Go  into  the  eternal  fire  which  is  prepared  for 
the  devil  and  his  angels.'  Let  all  that  is  condemned 
by  this  Catholic  faith  be  condemned  in  heaven  and 
earth,  and  let  all  that  is  accepted  into  this  faith  be 
accepted  in  heaven  and  earth,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
being  King,  to  whom,  with  the  Father  and  the  Holy 
Ghost,  is  glory  for  ever  and  ever  !  " 

After  these  anathemas  the  new  converts  recited  the 
Nicene  Creed,  the  Constantinopolitan  Creed,^  and  the 
Exposition  of  Chalcedon,  and  then  signed  the  docu- 
ment containing  the  anathemas  and  the  creeds.  The 
episcopal  converts  were  eight  in  number — Ugnus, 
Bishop  of  Barcelona,  Murila  of  Palencia,  Ubiligisculus 
of  Valencia,  Sunnila  of  Viseo,  Gardingus  of  Tuy, 
Beccila  of  Lugo,  Argiovitus  of  Portugal,  Fruisclus 
of  Tortosa.      After  the    bishops,   the  presbyters  and 

1  That  the  Constantinopolitan  Creed  was  not  drawn  up  at  Con- 
stantinople, but  was  foisted  on  the  Council  of  Chalcedon  as  the  Creed 
of  the  Council  of  Constantinople  by  the  representative  of  that  See,  is 
a  theory  alike  devoid  of  foundation  and  verisimilitude. 


150        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

deacons  who  were  converted  from  Arianism  subscribed 
their  names,  and  beneath  them  the  Gothic  nobles. 
How  many  signatories  of  the  two  last  classes  there 
were  we  are  not  told.  Of  the  eight  bishops,  five 
appear  to  have  been  Suevi,  and  three  to  have  been 
Goths.  The  Suevi  as  a  nation  had  been  converted 
from  Arianism  twenty-nine  years  previously  ;  the  con- 
forming prelates  therefore  might  be  the  remains  of  the 
old  Suevic  hierarchy,  or  they  may  have  been  men  who 
had  been  intruded  into  Suevic  Sees  on  the  conquest  of 
the  country  by  Leovigild. 

The  converts  having  subscribed    their  recantation, 

Reccared  rose  and  said  that  there  was  one  thing  more 

which  he  must  require  to  have  done  for  the  protection 

of  the  Catholic  faith  ;  this  was  that  the  Creed  should 

be  recited  by  all  the  congregation  whenever  the  Holy 

Communion  was  administered,  according  to  the  form 

issued  by  the  Eastern  Fathers.     "For,"  said  he,  "if 

this  constitution  be  always  continued  in  the  Church  of 

God,  the  faith  of  the  people  will  be  solidly  strengthened 

and  the  misbelief  of  unbelievers  confuted,  men  being 

easily  inclined  to  what  they  recognise  as  a  thing  which 

they  have  again  and  again  heard  ;  and  besides,  no  one 

will  be  able  to  excuse  himself  by  pleading  ignorance 

of  the  faith  when  he  is  taught  by  the  mouth  of  all 

what   the  Catholic   Church  holds  and  believes."     He 

desired  them,  therefore,  before  they  did  anything  else, 

to  pass  a  canon  enjoining  "that  which  our  Serenity 

has  decreed  under  God's    guidance  about  the  public 

recitation  of  the  Creed." 

Twenty-three  canons  were  then  passed,  the  second 
of  which  is  as  follows  :— "To  pay  respect  to  our  most 


THE  THIRD  COUNCIL  OF  TOLEDO.  151 

holy  faith,  and  to  confirm  the  weak  minds  of  men 
according  to  the  instruction  of  our  most  pious  and 
glorious  lord,  King  Reccared,  the  holy  Synod  appoints 
that  through  all  the  Churches  of  Spain  and  Galicia  the 
symbol  of  the  faith  of  the  Council  of  Constantinople, 
that  is,  of  the  150  bishops,  be  recited,  in  accordance 
with  the  form  used  in  the  Eastern  Churches,  so  that, 
before  the  Lord's  Prayer  be  said,  it  be  recited  aloud 
by  the  people,  by  which  means  testimony  may  be 
borne  to  the  true  faith,  and  the  people  may  come  to 
receive  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  with  their  souls 
purified  by  faith,"  The  other  canons  command  the 
observance  of  the  decrees  of  the  ancient  Councils; 
forbid  the  newly  converted  bishops,  priests,  and 
deacons  to  live  with  their  wives ;  desire  that  the  Holy 
Scriptures  should  be  read  at  the  meal-times  of  the 
clergy  ;  order  that  all  the  churches,  with  their  furniture, 
which  had  hitherto  belonged  to  the  Arians,  should  be 
given  up  to  the  Catholic  bishops ;  command  the  excom- 
munication of  any  one  preventing  a  widow  or  a  virgin 
from  leading  an  unmarried  life;  insist  on  the  severer 
treatment  of  men  who  did  penance  and  then  returned 
to  their  sins ;  forbid  clergy  to  go  to  law  with  brother 
clergymen  before  the  secular  tribunals ;  prohibit  Jews 
from  having  Christian  wives  or  concubines  or  slaves ; 
desire  the  priests  and  territorial  judges  to  exterminate 
idolatry  in  Spain,  and  order  all  masters  to  prevent 
it  in  their  households  on  pain  of  excommunication ; 
denounce  child-murder;  command  Synods  to  be  held 
every  autumn ;  denounce  extortion  on  the  part  of 
bishops;  forbid  waihng  at  funerals  and  improper 
dances  in  connexion  with  religious  services. 


152         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

The  king  then  confirmed  the  Council  by  an  edict. 
He  states  that  God  had  inspired  him  with  the  idea  of 
commanding  all  the  bishops  of  Spain  to  present  them- 
selves to  his  Loftiness  for  the  sake  of  renewing  the 
faith  and  discipline  of  the  Church.  When  things  had 
been  maturely  deliberated,  it  belonged  to  him  to  give 
orders  to  all  the  subjects  of  his  realm,  that  none  should 
dare  to  despise  or  disregard  the  decrees  of  the  holy 
Council  held  in  the  city  of  Toledo  in  the  fourth  year 
of  his  reign.  All  the  acts  of  the  Council,  he  decreed, 
were  to  be  observed  for  ever  by  all,  Vv^hether  clergy  or 
laity.  If  any  bishop,  presbyter,  deacon,  or  cleric  were 
disobedient,  he  was  to  be  excommunicated ;  if  a  lay- 
man of  respectable  position,  he  was  to  be  mulcted  of 
half  his  goods ;  if  he  belonged  to  the  lower  class,  he 
was  to  be  banished. 

The  subscriptions  followed;  they  were  headed  by 
Reccared,  who  signs  as  Flavins  Reccared — Flavins 
being  a  name  which  he  and  others  of  his  line  adopted 
because  it  was  Roman  in  form.  He  signs  by  a  for- 
mula the  use  of  which  is  confined  to  himself,  ^'  I, 
Flavins  Reccared,  the  king,  confirm  by  my  subscrip- 
tion this  consultation  which  we  have  concluded  with 
the  Holy  Synod."  The  leading  bishops  used  the 
form,  ''  I  assent  by  my  subscription  to  these  consti- 
tutions." The  remaining  bishops  only  wrote  ''  I  sub- 
scriber Those  who  declared  their  assent  were  the 
five  Metropolitans,  Masona  of  Merida,  Metropolitan  of 
Lusitania ;  Euphemius  of  Toledo,  Metropolitan  of  Car- 
petania  (a  division  of  Carthaginensis) ;  Leander  of 
Seville,  Metropolitan  of  Boetica  (Andalusia);  Migetius 
of  Narbonne,  Metropolitan  of  the  Hispano-Gallic  pro- 


THE  THIRD  COUNCIL  OF  TOLEDO.  153 

vince;  Pantadus  of  Braga,  Metropolitan  of  Galicia,  and 
with  them  Ugnus  of  Barcelona  (the  Metropolitan  of 
Tarragona  being  absent),  Maurila  of  Palencia,  Ando- 
nius  of  Oretum  (La  Mancha).  Among  the  other  bishops 
there  are  noticeable  the  Bishops  of  Carcassonne,  Tuy, 
Lisbon,  Dumium,  Zaragoza,  Oporto,  Cordova,  Elvira, 
Salamanca,  Italica,  Tortosa,  Calahorra.  Sixty-tv^o 
bishops  signed  w^ith  their  ov^rn  hands  and  six  by 
deputy.  The  Bishops  of  Tarragona,  Cartagena,  and 
Malaga  v^ere  absent,  the  tv^o  last  cities  being  in  the 
possession  of  the  Imperialists.  Five  of  the  cities 
appear  to  have  had  two  bishops,  one  Catholic  and  the 
other,  up  to  this  time,  Arian.  Leander,  who  had  been 
the  leading  spirit  of  the  Council,  closed  its  proceedings 
with  a  congratulatory  sermon. 

Only  one  serious  effort  was  made  to  shake  the 
settlement  made  in  this  national  convention.  Duke 
Argimund,  chamberlain  to  the  Queen  and  governor 
of  the  province  of  Carpetania,  made  an  insurrection  in 
behalf  of  the  old  Gothic  faction,  for  the  purpose  of 
dethroning  Reccared  and  establishing  himself  as  king. 
The  insurrection  was  crushed ;  Argimund's  chief  sup- 
porters were  executed,  and  he  himself  was  put  to  death 
after  he  had  been  paraded  through  the  streets  of  Toledo 
on  an  ass  with  the  skin  torn  from  his  head,  and  his 
right  hand  struck  off.  After  this  one  attempt  at  the 
restoration  of  the  old  Gothic  monarchy  in  its  ancient 
haughty  form  of  pre-eminence,  the  nation  settled 
quietly  down  under  its  new  constitution.  The  heredi- 
tary Arianism  of  the  Goths  was  exhausted.  It  had 
always  been  on  principle  tolerant;  its  toleration  had 
passed  into  indifference;  and  in  order  to  save  them- 


154        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

selves  from  disturbances  at  home,  which  were  fostered 
by  the  difference  in  religion,  and  to  prevent  their  isola- 
tion from  the  rest  of  the  Western  World,  which  they 
felt  more  and  more,  as  the  power  of  the  orthodox 
Franks  extended  and  confirmed  itself  in  France,  the 
Gothic  aristocracy  adopted  the  religion  of  their  subjects 
and  neighbours — with  the  more  readiness  as  it  had 
made  considerable  way  amongst  themselves  already. 
From  this  time  forward  the  inhabitants  of  the  whole 
Peninsula,  united  in  faith,  grew  more  and  more  into 
one  nation. 

It  has  been  said  above  that  the  tome  presented  to 
the  Council  of  Toledo  by  King  Reccared,  and  signed  by 
him  and  his  Queen,  contained  the  Nicene  Creed  and 
the  Constantinopohtan  Creed,  and  that  tliose  two  Creeds 
were  subscribed  by  the  converts  from  Arianism  at  the 
same  Council.  The  statement  was  not  perfectly  exact, 
for  the  Constantinopohtan  Creed  recited  at  the  Council 
of  Toledo  in  the  year  589  is  not  an  exact  translation 
and  representation  of  the  Creed  of  Constantinople  issued 
in  the  year  351.  The  original  Creed  runs  as  follows: 
''And  we  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Lord  and 
Giver  of  Hfe,  proceeding  from  the  Father."  The  same 
clause  in  the  Creed  as  recited  at  the  Council  of  Toledo 
runs  :  ''  And  we  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Lord  and 
Giver  of  life,  proceeding  from  the  Father  a/^d  tJie  Son^ 
This  is  the  first  time  that  the  interpolation  "and 
the  Son  "  is  found  to  have  been  made  in  the  Niceno- 
Constantinopolitan  Creed.  By  whom  and  why  was  it 
made  ?  It  was  either  made  by  King  Reccared  per- 
sonally, or  by  Lcander,  Bishop  of  Seville,  who,  with 
the  Abbot  Eutropius,  had  the  arrangement  of  the  pro- 


THE  THIRD  COUNCIL  OF  TOLEDO.  155 

ceedings  of  the  Council  of  Toledo.  If  it  was  made  by 
King  Reccared  himself,  it  is  probable  that  the  alteration 
was  made  by  him  unconsciously.  As  a  layman  brought 
up  in  Arianism,  which  repudiated  the  Councils  of  Nicsea 
and  Constantinople,  Reccared  would  have  had  no  in- 
timate acquaintance  with  the  Creeds  promulgated  by 
those  two  Councils.  In  his  address  to  the  Council  he 
had  said,  ''  I  observe  and  honour  the  Holy  Creed  of  the 
Nicene  Council,  which  the  Holy  Synod  of  318  bishops 
wrote  against  Arius;  and  I  embrace  and  hold  the 
Creed  of  the  1 50  bishops  who  met  at  Constantinople, 
which  smote  with  the  sword  of  truth  Macedonius,  who 
declared  the  substance  of  the  Holy  Ghost  to  be  inferior, 
and  distinguished  it  from  the  unity  and  essence  of  the 
Father  and  the  Son."  He  seems,  therefore,  to  have 
intended  to  lay  before  the  Council  the  Creeds  of  Nic£ea 
and  Constantinople  as  they  were  originally  promulgated, 
and  that  this  was  his  simple  purpose  appears  to  be 
made  still  more  apparent  by  the  order  that  he  gave 
that  the  Creed  was  always  to  be  recited  in  the  service 
of  the  Holy  Communion,  for  he  commands  that  the 
Creed  shall  be  recited  according  to  the  form  of  the 
Eastern  Fathers,  or,  as  the  second  canon  puts  it,  ^^  the 
Creed  of  the  Council  of  Constantinople,  that  is,  of  the 
150  bishops,  is  to  be  recited  before  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
according  to  the  form  of  the  Eastern  Churches."  But 
if  it  were  Reccared's  intention  to  recite  the  Creed  in 
its  unadulterated  form,  how  are  we  to  account  for  the 
interpolation  of  the  words  ^'  and  from  the  Son  "  ?  We 
must  probably  look  to  Leander  as  the  author  of  this 
insertion,  Leander  was  a  personal  friend  of  Pope 
Gregory  I.,  who  held  and  taught  the  doctrine  of  the 


156        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

Procession  from  the  Son.  S.  Ambrose  and  S.  Augus- 
tine, both  of  great  authority  with  Spanish  Churchmen, 
had  taught  the  same  doctrine,  and  had  used  the  expres- 
sion ''  Proceeding  from  the  Father  and  the  Son."  To 
Spanish  ecclesiastics,  who  had  spent  their  lives  in  a 
hand-to-hand  conflict  with  Arianism,  the  phrase  ap- 
peared to  be  of  great  importance,  as  they  were  anxious 
to  maintain,  in  the  face  of  a  heresy  which  depreciated 
the  Son,  the  truth  that  all  that  the  Father  had  was 
communicated  by  Him  to  the  Son,  and  therefore  that 
the  Procession  of  the  Holy  Ghost  was  from  the  Son  as 
well  as  from  the  Father.  With  a  view  to  emphasising 
this  truth,  the  previous  Council  of  Toledo  had,  as  we 
have  seen,  put  out  a  Creed  of  its  own  which  contained 
the  expression  "  Proceeding  from  the  Father  and  the 
Son."  The  Spanish  Catholic  theologians  were,  there- 
fore, familiarised  with  the  phrase,  not  only  as  occur- 
ring in  the  works  of  individual  theologians,  but  also  as 
making  a  part  of  their  own  local  Creed.  Leander  may 
well  have  thought  that,  under  these  circumstances,  the 
subscription  to  the  original  Creed  as  it  stood  without 
this  clause  would  be  a  step  backwards,  and  that  there 
could  be  no  harm  in  the  introduction  of  words  which 
had  the  sanction  of  the  chief  theologians  of  the  West, 
although  they  had  not  made  a  part  of  the  original 
formula. 

Leander  and  his  pupil,  Reccared,  had  not  the  gift  of 
prevision,  but  they  might  have  understood — at  least  a 
theologian  should  have  known — the  danger  of  tamper- 
ing with  a  document  stamped  with  the  authority  of  the 
Universal  Church  and  making  an  alteration  in  it  by 
any  authority  less  than  that  whicli  had  promulgated  it. 


THE  THIRD  COUNCIL  OF  TOLEDO.  157 

At  first  no  harm  seemed  to  arise  from  the  transaction. 
No  doubt  the  introduction  was  irregular,  but  this,  it 
was  thought,  might  be  condoned  for  the  sake  of  the 
good  which  might  be  done  to  the  Semi-Arian  congre- 
gations before  whom  and  by  whom  the  Creed  was  now 
pubUcly  recited  week  by  week.  From  Spain  the  inno- 
vation spread  into  France,  and  extended  itself  into 
Italy.  It  v/as  defended  at  Councils  held  at  FriuH  in 
796  and  at  Aix  in  809.  Charlemagne  took  it  under 
his  patronage,  and  urged  Pope  Leo  III.  to  sanction  the 
interpolation.  Leo  refused,  decreeing  ex  cathedra  that 
it  was  not  permissible  to  alter  the  wording  employed 
by  the  CEcumenical  Council  of  Constantinople.  The 
first  thing  to  do,  he  said,  was  to  eject  the  interpolated 
clause  from  the  Creed ;  after  that  it  might  be  lawfully 
taught  or  recited  in  other  documents.  To  prevent  the 
interpolation  ever  being  admitted,  Pope  Leo  engraved 
the  Creed  of  Constantinople,  without  the  words  "  and 
from  the  Son,"  in  Greek  and  Latin  on  two  silver  shields, 
and  hung  them  up  in  his  cathedral  church  in  Rome  to 
show  the  inadmissibility  of  the  innovation.  Here  then 
was  the  first  result  of  the  slight  alteration  made,  pro- 
bably with  a  good  purpose,  in  the  Council  of  Toledo 
of  589,  namely,  a  quarrel  between  the  Patriarch  of 
Rome  and  the  majority  of  the  Churches  of  Spain, 
France,  and  Italy,  supported  by  the  Emperor  of  the 
West.  But  this  was  only  a  slight  evil  compared  with 
what  was  to  follow.  The  Pope's  resistance  was  sure 
to  give  way  as  soon  as  the  practice  became  so  common 
as  to  make  it  difficult  to  resist ;  and  this,  in  fact,  hap- 
pened. By  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century 
King  Reccared's  form  of  the  Creed  had  in  the  West 


158        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

almost  universally  superseded  the  original  form,  and 
therefore,  in  the  year  10 14,  the  then  Pope  quietly 
yielded  to  Imperial  pressure  and  conformed  to  the 
popular  practice,  ignoring  Pope  Leo  I.'s  r;r  cathedra 
decree  prohibiting  such  a  thing  to  be  done. 

But  the  attitude  of  the  Oriental  Church  was  very 
different.  The  act  of  the  Spanish  Council  was  at  first 
so  Httle  regarded,  that  in  the  sixth  (Ecumenical  Council 
held  at  Constantinople,  A.D.  680,  the  creed  v/as  recited 
in  its  original  form  without  any  notice  being  taken  that 
some  Spanish  Christians  had  for  their  own  purposes 
interpolated  it.  The  Orientals  do  not  seem  to  have 
been  aware  of  the  interpolation  until  the  time  of  Charle- 
magne, when  some  Western  monks  carried  their  creed 
to  Jerusalem,  for  the  purpose  apparently  of  shocking 
Eastern  orthodoxy.  It  was  not  till  Z^-J  that  the  East,  by 
the  voice  of  the  Patriarch  Photius,  lifted  its  voice  against 
the  Spanish  innovation.  Photius  wrote  a  circular 
letter  complaining  of  other  usages  and  doctrines  of  the 
West,  and  adding  that,  "  as  the  acme  of  their  impiety, 
men  in  the  West  had  dared  to  adulterate  the  sacred 
and  holy  symbol  with  novel  insertions,  declaring  the 
Holy  Ghost  to  have  proceeded  from  the  Son."  From 
the  time  of  Photius  onward,  this  complaint  has  never 
ceased  to  be  urged  by  the  Eastern  Church,  and  at  this 
moment  it  is  one  of  the  chief  causes  or  excuses  for 
the  separation  of  the  Oriental  and  Latin  communions. 
Indeed,  so  living  a  question  is  it,  that  the  subject  of 
the  retention  or  excision  of  Reccared's  interpolation 
into  the  Creed  is  gravely  occupying  the  minds  of 
English  and  American  Churchmen  at  the  present  time. 


THE  THIRD  COUNCIL  OF  TOLEDO.  159 

The  Third  Council  of  Toledo  having  ordered  that 
Synods  should  be  held  once  a  year,  we  find  a  consider- 
able number  celebrated  in  various  cities  during  the  reign 
of  Reccared.  They  were,  however,  for  the  most  part 
unimportant.  The  first  was  held  at  Narbonne,  the 
capital  of  the  Visigothic  province  in  France.  It  was 
held  in  the  same  year  with  the  Council  of  Toledo,  and 
attended  by  seven  bishops.  It  passed  fifteen  canons, 
one  of  which  orders  the  strict  observance  of  the  Lord's 
day,  forbidding  any  agricultural  work  upon  it,  under 
the  penalty  of  a  fine  of  six  shillings  in  the  case  of  a 
freeman,  or  of  a  hundred  strokes  in  the  case  of  a  slave. 
At  the  same  time  the  religious  observance  of  Thursday 
is  forbidden.  A  canon  is  also  passed  against  the  Jews, 
who  from  this  time  forward  became  objects  of  cruel 
persecution.  The  Synod  of  Narbonne  forbids  them  to 
carry,  their  dead  to  the  grave  with  the  accompaniment 
of  psalm-singing.  A  synod  held  at  Seville  next  year 
was  presided  over  by  Leander,  and  attended  by  eight 
bishops.  One  of  the  canons  calls  in  the  secular  power 
of  judges  to  prevent  the  immoral  life  of  the  now  celi- 
bate priesthood,  by  forcibly  removing  all  women  from 
the  houses  of  the  clergy. 

In  the  twelfth  year  of  Reccared,  another  Synod  was 
held  at  Toledo,  of  which  Masona  was  president.  It 
was  attended  by  thirteen  bishops.  The  Bishop  of 
Toledo  signs  his  name  after  that  of  Masona  and  of 
Migetius,  Metropohtan  of  Narbonne.  The  chief  object 
of  the  Synod  was  to  restrain  the  immorality  of  the 
celibate  clergy. 

In  the  following  year  a  Synod  was  held  at  Huesca 
with  the  same  purpose. 


i6o        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

In  the  following  year,  A.D.  599,  was  held  a  Synod  at 
Barcelona,  the  chief  object  of  which  was  to  discourage 
simon}^  and  to  encourage  celibacy. 

In  the  year  601  Reccared  died,  having  completed 
his  work  of  fusing  into  one  the  Gothic,  the  Suevic,  the 
Roman  and  aboriginal  races,  which  up  to  this  time  had 
lived  in  Spain,  but  owing  to  their  separation  had  not 
formed  a  Spanish  nation.  Difference  in  religion  had 
been  the  chief  cause  which  prevented  the  different 
races  from  melting  into  one  people.  •  This  difference 
was  now  removed.  From  the  time  of  Euric  to  Recca- 
red, the  throne  and  the  altar,  the  sceptre  and  the 
crozier,  looked  at  one  another  with  distrust  and  jealousy; 
not  seldom,  it  would  appear,  popular  discontent  was 
fostered  by  the  bishops  and  clergy,  who  looked  outside 
of  the  realm  for  moral  support  against  their  sovereign. 
Even  Hermenigild's  rebellion  against  his  father,  if  it 
originated  in  the  religious  opinions  which  were  im- 
ported from  the  Franks,  was  encouraged  and  strength- 
ened, even  in  things  secular,  by  Leander,  Metropolitan 
Bishop  of  Seville,  the  head  of  the  Spanish  Catholic 
party.  Now  all  this  was  changed ;  there  was  no  more 
antagonism  between  a  haughty,  tolerant,  still  half-alien 
lord  and  a  Church,  submissive  to  the  existing  powers, 
but  unsympathetic  in  its  feelings;  the  crown  and  the. 
mitre  were  not  only  reconciled  but  allied,  and  they 
supported  each  the  other  down  to  the  overthrow  of 
both  by  the  Saracens.  This  was  not  an  unmixed 
good  :  the  aUiance  was  over-close,  and  brought  in  its 
train  evils  which  were  at  first  unforeseen  and  un- 
suspected. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

GROWTH  OF  THE  SEE  OF  TOLEDO, 

Reccared  was  succeeded  by  his  young  son  Leuva, 
who  after  two  years'  reign  was  dethroned  and  killed 
by  Witteric,  whom  we  have  met  with  before  as  taking 
part  in  a  conspiracy  against  the  life  of  Masona.  At 
the  end  of  seven  years  Witteric  was  succeeded  by  Gun- 
demar,  in  the  first  year  of  whose  reign  was  held  another 
Synod  at  Toledo,  at  which  a  significant  indication  was 
given  of  the  changed  relations  between  the  Church  and 
the  Crown.  We  have  seen  that  King  Leovigild  trans- 
ferred the  royal  residence  from  Seville  to  Toledo.  As 
long  as  the  king  was  Arian,  the  dignity  of  the  Bishop 
of  Toledo  was  not  advanced  by  the  presence  of  the 
king's  court,  but  as  soon  as  the  sovereign  became 
Catholic,  it  was  only  natural  that  the  See  of  Toledo 
should  be  elevated  in  temporal  and  ecclesiastical 
respects.  Accordingly,  in  the  Third  Council  of  Toledo, 
held  under  King  Reccared,  we  find  the  Bishop  of 
Toledo  claiming  the  title  of  metropolitan.  He  does 
not,  however,  yet  venture  to  call  himself  the  metro- 
politan of  the  whole  of  the  province  of  Carthaginensis. 
He  signs  himself  as  Metropolitan  of  Carpetania,  which 
was  one  division  of  that  province.  At  the  end  of 
eleven  years  from  that  time  the  prelate  of  the  royal 
city  was   not   content  with  being  the  metropolitan  of 

i6i 


i62        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

half  the  province,  nor  was  King  Giindemar  satisfied 
with  the  bishop  peciiharly  attached  to  himself  being 
inferior  in  dignity  to  any  other.  The  king  and  the 
Church  of  Spain  had  now  come  into  the  same  relation 
with  one  another  as  that  which  had  long  been  held  by 
the  Emperor  of  Rome  and  the  Church  of  the  Western 
Empire.  In  the  same  way,  therefore,  that  Gratian  and 
Valentinian  had  passed  laws  commanding  that  the 
Bishop  of  Rome,  their  capital,  should  be  the  chief 
bishop  within  their  empire,  so  Gundemar  resolved 
that  the  Bishop  of  Toledo,  the  bishop  of  his  capital, 
should  be  at  first  the  equal  of  any  other  Spanish  pre- 
late, and,  after  a  time,  primate  of  the  Church  of  Spain. 
As  there  were  five  provinces,  there  were  five  metro- 
politans in  Spain,  namely,  the  Bishops  of  Seville,  Tarra- 
gona, Cartagena,  Merida,  and  Braga.  But  Cartagena 
had  been  sacked,  and  for  the  time  almost  destroyed, 
by  the  Vandals  a  little  before  their  disappearance  into 
Africa,  and  subsequently  it  was  occupied  by  the  Byzan- 
tines who  had  been  introduced  into  the  country  by 
Athanagild.  As  Cartagena  sank  in  estimation,  Toledo 
grew  in  power.  In  527  Bishop  Montanus  could  call 
it  a  metropolis  (if  his  letter  is  not  forged),  and  in 
Reccared's  reign  its  bishop  was  able  to  claim  the 
title  of  metropoHtan  of  half  the  province.  Gundemar 
resolved  to  place  him  higher.  He  therefore  called  a 
Synod,  at  which  fifteen  bishops  declared  their  sub- 
mission to  the  Bishop  of  Toledo,  and  he  issued  an 
edict  of  singular  interest,  as  showing  the  authority 
assumed  from  this  time  forward  by  Spanish  kings  in 
ecclesiastical  matters.  He  begins  with  a  declaration  of 
the  duty  of  kings  to  rightly  dispose  things  pertaining 


GROWTH  OF  THE  SEE  OF  TOLEDO.  163 

to  divinity  and  religion.      Coming  to   the  subject  in 
hand,  the  king  complains  that  there  are  some  of  the 
bishops  of  the  province  of  Carthaginensis  who  despise 
the  dignity  of  the  Church  of  Toledo,  which  has  been 
raised  to  a  height  by  the  imperial  throne.     This,  he 
says,  he  will  not  any  longer  endure,  but  insists  on  the 
honour  of  the  primacy  over  all  the  Churches  of  the 
province  of  Carthaginensis  being  given  to  the  Bishop 
of  the  See  of  Toledo.     Nor  would  he  allow  that  the 
province  should   have  two  metropolitans,  but  Toledo 
was  to  stand  first  and  alone.     He  then  proceeds  : — 
"  But  as  to  the  subscription  made  by  the  honourable 
Bishop  Euphemius  in  the  general  Synod  of  Toledo,  in 
which  Toledo  is  declared  to  be  the  metropolis  of  the 
province  of  Carpetania,  we  correct  that  ignorant  state- 
ment, knowing  for  certain  that  the  district  of  Carpe- 
tania is  not  a  province,  but  a  part  of  the  province  of 
Carthaginensis,  as   ancient  monuments   also   declare; 
and   because   it   is   one   and   the   same   province,  we 
decree  that  as   Baetica,  Lusitania,  Tarraconensis,  and 
the  rest  which  belong   to   the  rule  of  our  realm  are 
known  to  have  each  their  own  metropolitan,  according 
to  the  ancient  decrees  of  the  Fathers,  so  the  province 
of  Carthaginensis  also  shall  pay  respect  to  only  one 
primate,  whom  ancient  synodal  authority  points  out, 
and  let  it  honour  him  as  the  chief  prelate  amongst  all 
his  comprovincials,  and  let  nothing  be  done  without  his 
consent,  as  the  proud  presumption  of  arrogant  priests 
has  up  to  now  attempted.     By  this  edict,  issued  by 
our  authority,  we  lay  down  the  manner  in  which  men 
are  to  live  rehgiously  and  without  offence,  and  hence- 
forth we  do  not  allow  any  such  things  to  be  done  by 

M 


i64         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

the  bishops  in  disorderly  fashion,  but  of  our  clemency 
we  pardon  past  carelessness,  and  though  the  guilt  of 
previous  delinquency  be  great,  any  who  audaciously  try 
to  transgress  this  our  decree,  resting  on  the  authority 
of  the  old  Fathers,  will  be  counted  guilty  of  greater, 
nay,  unpardonable  crime.  Henceforth  we  shall  not 
pardon  the  offence,  if  any  of  the  priests  of  Carthagi- 
nensis  disregard  the  honour  of  this  Church.  Whoever 
is  disobedient  shall  certainly  undergo  the  sentence  of 
degradation  or  excommunication,  as  well  as  the  inflic- 
tion of  severe  punishment  by  us ;  for  we  firmly  believe 
that  our  kingdom  is  so  directed  by  Divine  government 
according  as  we,  in  our  zeal  for  what  is  just,  seek  to 
correct  what  is  wrong  in  the  observance  of  order,  and 
try  constantly  to  maintain  it  aright."  ^ 

The  king  is  the  first  to  subscribe  his  decree.  The 
formula  that  he  uses  in  subscribing  is  the  following : 
"  I,  King  Flavins  Gundemar,  sign  with  my  own  hand 
the  constitution  established  by  this  edict  to  confirm  the 
honour  of  the  holy  Church  at  Toledo."  The  other  signa- 
tures are  twenty-six,  including  those  of  Isidore,  Metro- 
politan of  Seville ;  Innocent,  Metropolitan  of  Merida,  both 
of  whom  state  that  they  had  been  invited  by  the  king 
to  be  present;  Eusebius,  Metropolitan  of  Tarragona; 
Sergius,  Metropolitan  of  Narbonne ;  Maximus,  Bishop  of 
Zaragoza;  Mumius,  Bishop  of  Calahorra;  Goma',  Bishop 
of  Lisbon ;  Fulgentius,  Bishop  of  Ecija,  brother  of  Lean- 
der  and  Isidore  ;  Argcbert,  Bishop  of  Oporto ;  Pisinus, 
Bishop  of  Elvira  ;  John  Biclarensis,  Bishop  of  Gerona. 

Toledo  thus  attained  to  full  metropolitan  rank.  It 
had  still  to  wait  awhile  to  be  recognised  as  the  prima- 
tial  Sec  of  Spain. 

1  Labbe  et  Cos'ait,  CoficiV.  Gen.,  v.  pp.  16-24. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

BISHOP  ISIDORE  AND  THE  FOURTH  COUNCIL 
OF  TOLEDO. 

At  the  above  Synod  it  will  be  seen  that  Isidore  sub- 
scribes as  Metropolitan  Bishop  of  Seville,  and  Fulgen- 
tius  as  Bishop  of  Astigi  or  Ecija.  They  also  sign  the 
Second  Council  of  Seville,  held  in  619,  in  which  Isidore 
presided  and  formulated  a  theological  refutation  of  the 
Monophysite  sect  called  Acephali,  which  appears  in 
its  Acts.  They  were  two  brothers,  belonging  to  the 
remarkable  family  to  which  Spain  owed  more  than  to 
any  other  the  establishment  of  the  CathoHc  faith  as 
the  faith  of  the  nation.  Leander  was  the  eldest  brother. 
We  have  seen  him  as  the  adviser  of  Hermenigild  and 
Reccared,  and  the  friend  of  Gregory  I.  of  Rome,  with 
whom  he  made  acquaintance  at  Constantinople,  while 
Gregory  was  holding  the  office  of  Apocrisiarius  for  Pela- 
gius  II.  On  Gregory's  advancement  to  the  Papacy, 
Leander,  who  had  now  returned  to  Spain,  wrote  to 
congratulate  him  on  his  elevation,  and  to  give  him  an 
account  of  Reccared's  Council  and  the  conversion  of  the 
Goths.  Gregory  twice  wrote  to  Leander,  sending  him 
each  time  some  of  the  books  which  he  had  written, 
and  the  year  before  Leander  died  he  wrote  a  third 
time  to  him,  and  at  the  same  time  to  King  Reccared, 

sending  to   his   honoured    brother  and   fellow-bishop, 

165 


i66        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

Leander,  the  pallium  as  a  gift  from  the  See  of  the 
blessed  Apostle  Peter,  which  he  owed  to  "  ancient  cus- 
tom (or  to  his  old  friendship),  mitiqiics  consuetudini,  to 
the  king's  merits  and  the  bishop's  excellence."  As 
there  are  only  three  instances  of  the  bestowal  of  the 
pallium  by  the  Bishop  of  Rome  before  Gregory  (by 
Symmachus,  A.D.  513,  Vigilius,  A.D.  545,  Pelagius  IL, 
A.D.  590),  this  gift  is  of  much  interest.  What  did  it 
mean  ?  We  learn  from  the  Council  of  Macon,  held 
A.D.  581,  that  at  that  time  all  archbishops  in  France 
were  bound  to  wear  the  pallium  (a  vestment  falling 
down  the  back  in  the  form  of  a  Y)  while  performing 
mass.^  Therefore  it  was  a  natural  present  to  bestow 
upon  an  archbishop.  The  Popes  of  the  sixth  century 
occasionally  made  this  present  to  special  friends.  It 
was  a  gift,  as  Gregory  says  above,  but  no  more.  As 
time  passed  on,  it  was  not  difficult  to  attach  to  this 
gift  a  signification  convenient  to  the  interests  of  the 
giver.  First,  it  was  made  to  imply  that  the  presentee 
became  thereby  the  vicar  or  representative  of  the 
Pope  in  the  country  in  which  he  resided;  next,  it 
was  a  badge  of  acknowledgment  of  papal  superiority ; 
and  lastly,  it  was  declared  by  Pope  Nicholas,  A.D.  Z66y 
to  be  a  necessity  without  which  no  archbishop  could 
officiate.     Day  ut  habeas. 

Leander  died  in  the  year  600,  and  was  succeeded  by 
his  youngest  brother,  Isidore.  His  second  brother, 
Fulgentius,  became  Bishop  of  Astigi  or  Ecija,  and  the 
Second  Council  of  Seville  had  to  settle  a  dispute 
between  him  and  Honorius,  Bishop  of  Cordova,  as  to 
the  possession  of  a  church  which  they  both  claimed. 

^  Can.  vi. 


THE  FOURTH  COUNCIL  OF  TOLEDO.  167 

A  sister,  Florentina,  entered  a  convent  in  her  brother 
Fulgentius'  diocese,  and  received  from  Leander  a  trea- 
tise on  conventual  Hfe,  called  Slz.  Leandri  Regiila.  At 
the  end  of  it  Leander  reminds  her  how  their  young- 
brother  Isidore  had  been  left  by  their  parents  to  the 
care  of  himself  and  Fulgentius  and  her,  and  begs  her 
to  love  and  pray  for  him  the  more  because  he  had  been 
their  parents'  favourite  child, — a  touch  of  nature  which 
comes  home  to  us  across  twelve  centuries. 

Isidore  was  the  first  personage  in  the  realm  during  the 
reigns  of  Leuva,  Witteric,  Gundemar,  Sisebut,  Reccared 
XL,  Swintila,  and  Sisenand,  as  his  brother  Leander 
was  in  the  reign  of  Reccared  I.  We  have  already 
seen  him  signing  Gundemar's  edict  next  after  the 
king  and  presiding  at  the  Provincial  Council  at  Seville. 
In  his  old  age  he  presided  at  the  National  Council  of 
Toledo,  called  the  Fourth,  at  which  all  the  metropoli- 
tans of  the  Spanish  dominions  and  sixty-two  bishops 
were  present.  That  Council,  which  laid  down  rules 
for  the  government  of  the  National  Church  where- 
ever  experience  had  shown  that  rules  were  wanted, 
probably  represents  the  ecclesiastical  views  of  Isidore 
in  his  mellow  old  age.  It  exhibits  a  perfect  indepen- 
dence of  foreign  control,  and  a  lo3^al,  almost  too  sub- 
missive, deference  to  the  king  of  the  country,  who, 
in  turn,  pays  an  excessive  reverence  to  his  bishops. 
Political  reasons  may,  to  a  certain  extent,  account  for 
this  relation  between  the  sovereign  and  the  prelates, 
but  it  is  probable  that  it  represents  Isidore's  concep- 
tion of  what  that  relation  ought  to  be.  The  canons 
passed  under  his  influence  were  for  the  most  part  of 
a  thoroughly  practical  character,  as  is  shown  by  the 


168        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

canon  on  the  appointment  of  bishops,  which,  for  the 
sake  of  the  peace  of  the  Church,  refuses  to  interfere 
with  appointments  already  made,  but  orders  that  for 
the  future  none  shall  be  consecrated  who  are  criminals, 
or  penitents,  or  heretics,  or  misformed,  or  mutilated, 
or  twice  married,  or  married  to  a  widow,  or  divorced 
persons,  or  fornicators,  or  slaves,  or  unknown  men, 
or  neophytes,  or  laymen,  or  soldiers,  or  statesmen,  or 
unlearned,  or  under  thirty  years  of  age,  or  men  who 
have  not  passed  through  the  ecclesiastical  steps  regu- 
larly, or  who  try  to  get  appointed  by  bribery,  or  have 
been  nominated  by  their  predecessors.  Besides  having 
these  qualifications,  it  is  necessary  that  a  bishop  should 
be  elected  by  the  clergy  and  laity  of  the  diocese,  and 
approved  by  the  authority  of  ^he  metropolitan  and  the 
assent  of  the  comprovincial  bishops.  A  candidate  thus 
qualified  is  to  be  consecrated  on  a  Sunday,  with  the 
good  will  of  the  clergy  and  laity,  by  all  the  compro- 
vincial bishops,  or  at  any  rate  by  three  of  them,  with 
the  consent  of  the  others  given  in  writing,  and  with 
the  authority  or  personal  presence  of  the  metropohtan. 
A  suffragan  is  to  be  consecrated  in  whatever  place  the 
metropolitan  chooses,  a  metropolitan  in  the  metropolis. 
(The  word  archbishop  has  not  yet  appeared  in  Spanish 
ecclesiastical  history,  nor  will  it  appear  for  several 
centuries.) 

There  are  seventy-five  canons  in  all  passed  by  this 
Council.  Two  of  them  are  directed  against  the  Jews, 
and  hard  and  cruel  as  they  are,  they  yet  lay  down  a 
principle  of  persecution  which  rises  above  the  practice 
of  the  Spanish  Church  at  that  or  at  any  other  time. 
The   57th    canon    says,    ^^  About    the   Jews,   the    holy 


THE  FOURTH  COUNCIL  OF  TOLEDO.  169 

Synod  lays  down  this  rule,  that  violence  is  not  to  be 
used  to  make  people  believe,  for  on  whom  God  wills 
He  has  mercy,  and  whom  He  will  He  hardens.  For 
men  are  not  to  be  saved  against  their  will  but  by  their 
own  will,  that  righteousness  may  have  its  perfect  form. 
For  as  man  perished  by  obeying  the  serpent  at  his 
own  will,  so  is  every  one  saved  when  the  grace  of  God 
calls  him,  by  the  conversion  of  his  own  soul.  There- 
fore, they  are  to  be  persuaded  to  be  converted,  not 
forced — not  by  violence,  but  by  free  choice."  If  this 
canon  embodies  the  views  of  Isidore,  as  is  probable 
from  his  having  expressed  a  similar  sentiment  else- 
where,^ we  must  grant  that  he  rose  above  the  opinions 
and  the  practice  of  his  contemporaries  and  of  his 
nation. 

While  Reccared's  conversion  seerned  to  weld  together 
the  other  elements  in  the  Spanish  Peninsula,  it  had  the 
opposite  result  on  the  Jewish  residents  in  it.  Already 
in  305  the  Church  had  shown  a  fierce  feeling  of  enmity 
toward  Jews,  forbidding  agriculturists  to  accept  the 
blessing  of  a  Jew  on  their  crops,  and  prohibiting 
Christians  from  eating  with  Jews,  but,  as  long  as  the 
sovereign  remained  Arian,  the  Jews  profited  by  the 
general  toleration  which  was  extended  to  the  Roman 
subjects  of  the  kingdom,  and  were  free  from  secular 
persecution.  But  as  soon  as  the  throne  and  the  altar 
were  united  in  sentiment,  and  the  King's  conduct  was 
directed  by  the  Church,  the  power  which  stood  between 

^  "  Initio  regni  Judseos  ad  Fidem  Christianam  permovens,  semula- 
tionem  habuit  sed  non  secundum  scientiam :  potestate  enim  compulit 
quos  provocare  fidei  ratione  oportuit.  Sed,  sicut  est  scriptum,  sive 
per  occasionem  sive  per  veritatem  Christus  annuntiatur." — Dwt 
Isidori  Hispal.  Episcopi  Historia  de  Regibus  Gothorum. 


170        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

the  Jew  and  his  assailant  was  renewed.  In  Reccared's 
Council  of  the  year  589  the  14th  canon  had  pro- 
hibited intermarriage  between  Christian  and  Jew,  and 
had  forbidden  the  Jew  to  have  a  Christian  slave,  and 
had  ordered  that  any  child  of  a  Jew  and  Christian 
should  be  baptized  and  brought  up  as  a  Christian. 
Sisebut,  who  succeeded  Gundemar  in  the  year  612, 
was  not  content  with  such  weak  measures;  he  ordered 
that  all  Jews  should  submit  to  baptism  within  one 
year,  or  undergo  scourging,  mutilation,  banishment, 
and  confiscation  of  goods.  In  the  Fourth  Council  ol 
Toledo,  Isidore's  influence  availed,  as  we  have  seen, 
to  lay  down  the  grand  principle  that  force  ought  not 
to  be  employed  in  effecting  their  conversion ;  but  this 
barren  declaration  did  not  help  the  poor  Jew  much, 
when  at  the  same  time  it  was  enacted  that  all  that  had 
been  baptized  in  consequence  of  Sisebut's  orders  were 
to  be  compelled  to  continue  in  the  profession  and  practice 
of  Christianity  (Can.  57);  that  no  converted  Jew  was 
to  be  allowed  to  apostatise  or  to  circumcise  his  children 
or  slaves  without  suffering  the  penalty  of  being  sepa- 
rated from  the  former  and  deprived  of  the  latter  (Can. 
59) ;  that  his  children  might  be  taken  from  him  and 
sent  to  monasteries  or  Christian  families  for  educa- 
tion (Can.  60)  ;  that  if  he  apostatised  himself,  but  his 
children  did  not,  the  latter  might  take  possession  of 
his  goods  (Can.  61)  ;  that  he  was  not  to  hold  any 
communication  with  his  unbelieving  fellow-countrymen 
(Can.  62) ;  that  a  Jew  married  to  a  Christian  was  to 
be  separated  from  his  wife  unless  he  became  a  Chris- 
tian himself,  and  that  the  children  of  mixed  marriages 
were  to  be  brought  up  as  Christians  (Can.  63) ;  that 


THE  FOURTH  COUNCIL  OF  TOLEDO.  171 

the  testimony  of  a  Jew  was  not  to  be  accepted  though 
he  declared  himself  to  be  a  Christian  (Can,  64) ;  that 
neither  a  Jew  nor  the  children  of  a  Jew  were  to  be 
capable  of  filling  public  offices  (Can.  65) ;  that  no  Jew 
should  have  a  Christian  slave,  seeing  that  one  was  a 
member  of  Christ,  and  the  other  of  Antichrist  (Can. 
66).  Such  was  the  manner  in  which  the  Council  and 
King  Sisenand  put  into  practice  Isidore's  principle  of 
no  compulsion,  and  Isidore  acquiesced  without  appear- 
ing to  see  any  inconsistency  in  his  conduct. 

On  Isidore's  death  the  last  restraint  on  severity  and 
cruelty  was  removed.  Chintila,  who  succeeded  Sise- 
nand in  637,  passed  a  law  that  neither  Jews  nor  any 
others  except  Catholics  should  be  permitted  to  reside  in 
his  dominions ;  and  the  Sixth  Council  of  Toledo,  A.D. 
632,  thanking  God  for  having  created  so  illustrious  a  soul 
as  the  king's,  so  full  of  zeal  and  wisdom,  decreed,  with 
the  assistance  of  the  Grandees  of  the  Palace,  that  no  one 
henceforward  should  be  elected  king  who  did  not  make 
oath  that  he  would  never  permit  Judaism  or  heresy  to 
exist  in  the  kingdom  (Can.  3).  Even  this  was  not 
sufficient,  for  there  still  remained  the  converted  Jews 
to  persecute,  and  accordingly  King  Recceswinth  com- 
pelled them  to  promise  that  from  that  time  forward 
(a.d.  654)  they  would  not  follow  any  Jewish  custom  or 
observance ;  that  they  w^ould  never  on  any  occasion 
have  dealings  or  converse  with  unbaptized  Jews; 
that  they  would  observe  the  laws  prohibiting  marriage 
with  relatives  to  the  sixth  degree ;  that  they  would  only 
marry,  and  only  allow  their  sons  and  daughters  to 
marry,  with  Christians ;  that  they  would  not  circumcise 
themselves,  as  they  used  to  do;  that  they  would  not 


1/2         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

keep  the  Passover,  nor  the  Sabbath,  nor  other  feasts 
accordmg  to  the  calendar  and  rites  of  the  Jews ;  that 
they  would  not  refuse  to  eat  meats  forbidden  in  the  old 
law ;  that  they  would  not  give  in  to  any  of  the  abomin- 
able practices  of  the  Jews;  that  they  beheved  with 
sincere  faith  and  right  heart  and  true  devotion  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God ;  that  they 
accepted  and  embraced  with  the  greatest  sincerity  and 
respect  all  the  customs  and  uses  of  the  holy  Christian 
religion  as  to  festivals,  marriages,  meats,  and  every- 
thing. And  if  any  of  them  failed  to  fulfil  their  present 
promises  in  the  least  point,  or  to  delay  their  fulfilment, 
or  to  oppose  by  word  or  act  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ, 
they  promised  and  swore  by  the  true  and  only  God, 
and  by  the  three  Divine  Persons,  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Ghost,  that  they  would  themselves  stone  them 
to  death  or  burn  them ;  and  if  the  mercy  of  the  king 
should  grant  them  life,  they  besought  His  Majesty,  of 
their  own  free  will  and  choice,  to  reduce  them  to  slavery 
and  dispose  of  their  goods  as  he  pleased. 

Even  this  was  not  sufficient.  Twenty-seven  years 
afterwards,  in  the  reign  of  Erwig,  each  of  the  converted 
Jews  had  individually  and  personally  to  make  and  sign 
a  declaration,  which,  for  its  ingenuity  in  the  prolonga- 
tion of  an  oath,  known  by  the  imposers  to  be  a  perjury 
on  the  part  of  the  man  who  took  it,  is  almost  unrivalled 
in  history.  The  declaration  begins  with  a  renunciation 
of  all  rites  and  observances  of  Judaism,  an  abomination 
of  all  the  solemnities  and  customs  hitherto  practised, 
and  a  promise  to  hold  henceforth  as  erroneous  and 
abominable  all  that  the  man  had  observed  and  respected 
up  to  that  time,  and  to  reject  everything  opposed  to  the 


THE  FOURTH  COUNCIL  OF  TOLEDO.  173 

faith  of  the  Christians.  Then  follows  the  recitation  of 
the  Niceno-Constantinopolitan  Creed,  with  a  profession 
of  full  faith  in  it,  and  a  promise  never  to  return  to 
Jewish  superstitions,  to  do  what  Christians  do,  eat 
what  Christians  eat,  to  go  to  church  like  good  Chris- 
tians, to  keep  Sunday  and  other  Christian  festivals,  and 
to  join  with  Christians  in  celebrating  their  religious 
rites.     Then  follov/s  the  oath,^  which,  were  it  not  for 

1  "  I  swear  to  observe  this  profession  of  my  faith  by  God  the  Father 
Almighty,  Whose  words  are,  '  By  Me  shalt  thou  swear,  and  thou  shalt 
not  take  in  vain  the  name  of  thy  Lord  God,  who  made  heaven  and 
earth  and  all  that  is  therein.'  I  swear  by  the  God  Who  hath  placed  a 
bridle  on  the  sea,  saying,  '  Hitherto  shalt  thou  come,  and  here  shall 
thy  proud  waves  be  stayed  ; '  and  by  the  same  God  Who  said,  '  The 
heaven  is  My  throne  and  the  earth  is  My  footstool.'  I  swear  by  Him 
Who  cast  down  from  heaven  proud  Lucifer,  at  Whose  presence  the 
hosts  of  angels  tremble,  the  depths  are  dried  up,  and  the  mountains 
are  levelled  ;  by  Him  Who  commanded  the  first  man  not  to  eat  of 
the  forbidden  tree,  and  for  his  disobedience  drove  him  out  of  Paradise, 
permitting  the  whole  human  race  to  be  corrupted  by  his  sin  ;  by  Him 
Who  accepted  the  sacrifice  of  just  Abel  and  justly  rejected  accursed 
Cain  ;  by  Him  Who  keeps  Elias  and  Enoch  alive  in  Paradise,  to  return 
at  the  end  of  the  ages  and  be  slain  ;  by  Him  Who  preserved  in  the 
ark  Noah  and  his  wife,  and  sons  and  daughters,  and  four-footed  beasts, 
and  fowls,  and  animals,  to  renew  life  on  the  earth  ;  by  Him  Who 
blessed  Shem,  the  son  of  Noah,  to  be  the  father  of  Abraham  and  all 
the  Israelites  ;  by  Him  Who  chose  the  Patriarchs  and  Prophets,  and 
blessed  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  ;  by  Him  Who  promised  to  the 
first  of  them  that  all  nations  should  be  blessed  in  him,  commanding 
him  to  be  circumcised  in  sign  of  perpetual  covenant.  I  swear  by  Plim 
Who  destroyed  Sodom  and  turned  Lot's  v^-ife  into  a  pillar  of  salt  ;  by 
Him  Who  wrestled  with  Jacob,  and,  making  him  halt,  ordered  him 
to  take  the  name  of  Israel ;  by  Him  Who  delivered  Joseph  from  the 
oppression  of  his  brethren,  and  made  him  pleasing  in  the  eyes  of 
Pharaoh  for  the  good  of  the  people  of  Israel  ;  by  Him  Who  saved 
Moses  from  the  water  and  appeared  to  him  in  a  burning  bush  ;  by 
Him  Who  made  use  of  Moses  to  bring  the  Ten  Plagues  on  Egypt  and 
to  deliver  His  people  from  slavery  ;  by  Him  Who  divided  the  waters 
of  the  Red  Sea,  making  a  miraculous  path  by  which  the  Israelites 
crossed  on  dry  ground,  while  Pharaoh  and  all  his  host  were  destroyed  ; 
by  Him  Who  guided  His  people  in  their  journeys  by  day  as  a  column 
of  smoke,  by  night  of  fire  ;  by  Him  Who  made  Mount  Sinai  to 
smoke  in  the  sight  of  all  the  people  of  Israel  ;  by  Him  Who  called 


174         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

the  deadly  earnest  of  the  Jewish  persecution,  we  might 
suppose  to  have  been  the  jesting  composition  of  one 
who  wished  to  parody  past  enormities.  It  is  probably 
Spain  alone  that  could  have  presented  us  with  such  a 
formula  drawn  up   for  real  use  by  the   Primate  of  a 

Aaron  for  his  first  priest,  and  consumed  his  sons  with  fire  for  having 
offered  sacrifice  with  strange  fire  ;  by  Him  Who  ordered  the  earth 
to  swallow  up  Dathan  and  Abiram  ;  by  Him  Who  turned  the  bitter 
water  into  sweet  and  gave  virtue  to  the  rod  of  Moses  to  draw  water 
out  of  the  rock  in  sight  of  the  people.  I  swear  by  Him  Who  sustained 
the  Israelites  for  forty  years  in  the  Wilderness  with  no  want  of  any- 
tliing  and  their  garments  unconsumed  ;  by  Him  Who  declared  that 
none  of  the  Israelites  should  enter  the  Promised  Land  except  Joshua, 
the  son  of  Nun,  and  Caleb,  because  they  had  not  believed  the  words  of 
the  Lord  ;  by  Him  Who  made  the  people  victorious,  while  Moses  held 
up  his  hands,  against  the  Amalekites  ;  by  Him  Who  caused  our  fathers 
to  pass  through  the  River  Jordan  with  Joshua,  and  in  sign  of  having 
crossed  to  take  twelve  stones  from  the  river;  by  Him  Who  commanded 
them  at  once  to  be  circumcised  with  sharp  stcmes  ;  by  Him  Who  threw 
down  the  walls  of  the  city  of  Jericho,  and  saved  David  from  the  hands 
of  Saul  and  Absalom  ;  by  Him  Who  listened  to  the  supplications  of 
Solomon  and  filled  all  the  Temple  with  a  cloud  and  sanctified  it  with 
His  blessing;  by  Him  Who  carried  up  the  Prophet  Elijah  from  the 
earth  to  heaven  in  a  chariot  of  fire ;  by  Him  Who,  listening  to  the 
prayer  of  Elisha,  divided  the  waters  of  Jordan  ;  by  Ilim  Who  filled 
the  prophets  with  His  Holy  Spirit,  and  delivered  Daniel  from  the 
lions  ;  by  Him  Who  kept  alive  the  three  children  in  the  furnace  in  the 
sight  of  the  king  their  enemy;  by  Him  Who  holds  the  keys  of  David, 
and  shuts  and  no  man  opens,  and  opens  and  no  man  shuts ;  by  Him 
Who  worked  all  the  prodigies  and  miracles  which  have  taken  place  in 
Israel  and  the  other  nations  of  the  earth.  I  swear  by  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments of  the  Law  of  God,  by  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God, 
by  the  Holy  Ghost,  Who  is  true  God  and  the  Third  Person  of  the 
Trinity  ;  by  the  Resurrection  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  His  Ascen- 
sion into  heaven  ;  by  tlie  glorious  and  awful  day  on  which  He  shall 
come  to  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead  with  a  countenance  gracious  to 
the  good  and  terrible  to  the  wicked.  I  swear  by  the  body  and  blood 
of  the  adorable  Redeemer,  Who  opened  the  eyes  of  the  blind,  made 
the  deaf  to  hear,  restored  the  paralytic,  gave  speech  to  the  dumb,  de- 
livered those  possessed  from  the  devils,  healed  the  lame,  raised  the 
dead,  walked  on  the  water,  brought  Lazarus  from  the  tomb  and  the 
corruption  of  darkness,  giving  life  to  the  dead  and  joyfulness  to  those 
who  wept  for  him.  I  swear  by  the  Creator  of  the  World,  the  Origina- 
tor of  Light,  and  the  Author  of  Salvation  ;  by  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord, 
Who  gave  light  to  the  earth  by  His  birtli,  redeemed  mankind  bv  His 


THE  FOURTH  COUNCIL  OF  TOLEDO.  175 

National  Church,  who  is  canonised  as  a  saint.^  The 
Jewish  persecution  under  the  Gothic  kings  was  a  pre- 
lude to  persecutions  of  the  Jews,  Moors,  and  Pro- 
testants in  later  ages,  and  showed  that  the  Spanish 
temper,  before  it  had  been  hardened  by  the  Saracenic 
struggles,  was  such  as  to  make  the  Inquisition  a  con- 
genial institution. 

And  even  this  was  not  enough.  In  the  Seventeenth 
Council  of  Toledo,  held  A.D.  694,  the  eighth  canon 
ordered  that  all  Jews  should  be  sold  as  slaves  and  the 
whole  of  their  goods  confiscated  for  having  Judaised 
after  baptism  and  conspired  against  the  kingdom.  What 
wonder  if  they  did  conspire  ?  and  how  can  they  be 

Passion,  died  without  losing  His  liberty  among  the  horrors  of  the  tomb, 
burst  the  gates  of  hell,  carried  thence  the  blessed  souls,  triumphed  over 
death,  entered  heaven  with  His  body,  sat  down  on  the  right  hand  of 
God  the  Father,  and  took  possession  of  the  throne  of  His  eternal  king- 
dom. I  swear  by  all  the  choirs  of  angels,  by  the  relics  of  the  apostles 
and  saints,  by  the  four  Gospels  on  this  altar,  which  I  touch  with  my 
hands,  that  I  have  promised  with  all  sincerity,  without  the  least 
deceit,  and  in  the  natural  sense  of  the  words  used,  all  that  I  have  pro- 
mised and  said  before  my  Bishop  with  profession  of  faith  which  I  have 
signed  with  my  hand  ;  and  I  hereby  bind  myself  to  renounce  all  the 
Jewish  rites  and  ceremonies,  to  believe  firmly  in  the  mystery  of  the 
Most  Holy  Trinity,  to  separate  myself  for  ever  from  the  sect  of  the 
Jews  and  from  all  communication  with  them,  to  live  in  the  religion 
of  the  Christians,  and  to  observe  what  they  observe  according  to  the 
Apostolic  rules  and  traditions. 

"  If  I  fail  in  any  of  the  things  promised,  or  defile  my  faith  with  any 
Jewish  superstition,  or  contradict  by  my  acts  the  plain  and  natural 
meaning  of  this  my  profession,  may  there  come  on  me  all  the  curses 
threatened  by  the  mouth  of  God  on  the  breakers  of  His  law  !  May 
there  come  on  me  and  on  my  house  and  on  my  children  all  the  plagues 
of  Egypt,  and  for  a  warning  to  others  may  the  earth  swallow  me  up 
alive  like  Dathan  and  Abiram  !  May  the  eternal  flames  burn  me  in 
company  with  Judas  and  the  men  of  Sodom,  and  when  I  stand  before 
the  tremendous  judgment-seat  of  the  Supreme  Judge  of  men,  may 
Jesus  Christ  say  to  me  in  wrath,  '  Depart  from  me,  thou  cursed,  into 
eternal  fire  prepared  for  Satan  and  the  evil  angels  1 '  "— Masdeu,  Historia 
Critica  de  Espana,  vol.  xi.  p.  367. 

^  S.  Julian  of  Toledo,  himself  of  Jewish  blood. 


176        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

blamed  if  they  threw  themselves  on  the  side  of  the 
Saracens  at  the  time  of  the  invasion  which  was  now 
imminent  ? 

The  only  man  who  even  by  an  academical  utterance 
tried  to  check  this  course  of  barbarous  persecution  on 
which  the  Spanish  Church  set  out  in  the  days  of  Rec- 
cared  and  continued  till  its  overthrow  by  the  Saracens, 
was  Isidore.  He  died  in  the  year  636,  three  years 
after  the  Fourth  Council  of  Toledo  had  been  held,  and 
in  the  reign  of  Sisenand.  As  Hosius  was  the  greatest 
ecclesiastic  that  Spain  has  produced,  so  Isidore  was 
the  most  learned,  and,  next  to  his  brother  Leander,  he 
was  the  most  influential  in  directing  the  affairs  of  the 
Gotho-Spanish  Church.  He  was  acquainted  not  only 
with  Latin,  which  was  the  ordinary  language  of  Spain, 
but  also  with  Greek  and  Hebrew,  and  with  the  whole 
cycle  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  classics.  His  book  on 
Etymologies  or  Origins,  though  full  of  mistakes  which 
any  schoolboy  could  now  correct,  contains  almost  all 
the  knowledge  that  the  world  at  that  time  had  in 
grammar,  rhetoric,  dialectic,  arithmetic,  geometry, 
music,  astronomy,  medicine,  law,  sacred  and  profane 
history,  men,  animals,  the  universe,  agriculture,  war, 
ships,  architecture,  food,  and  many  more  subjects. 
Besides  this  work,  which  is  of  the  nature  of  an  ency- 
clopaedia, he  wrote  on  physics,  metaphysics,  Scripture, 
theology,  history.  His  history  of  the  Goths  is  of  great 
value  even  at  the  present  day.  Many  works  have 
been  attributed  to  him  which  he  did  not  write;  one 
of  these  is  the  treatise  Dc  ortu  et  obitti  Pairuni  qui  in 
Scriptnrd  laudibiis  effcnintjiry  which,  as  we  have  seen, 
is  quoted  as  the  first  authority  for  S.  James'  preaching 


THE  FOURTH  COUNCIL  OF  TOLEDO.  177 

in  Spain.  The  sentence  making  this  statement  fuses 
into  one  James  the  son  of  Zebedee  and  James  the  son 
of  Alphaeus,  says  that  he  wrote  to  the  dispersion  of 
the  Jews  and  preached  in  Spain,  declares  him  to  have 
been  put  to  death  by  Herod  the  Tetrarch,  instead  of 
Herod  Agrippa  L,  and  states  that  he  was  buried  in 
Marmarica,  a  district  in  Africa,  where  he  never  went.^ 
The  seventh  century  was  not  a  learned  age,  but  that 
the  most  learned  man  of  that  century  should  have 
penned  such  a  sentence  as  that  is  outside  the  limits 
of  credibility.  It  would  be  possible,  indeed,  that  the 
passage  might  have  been  interpolated  in  a  genuine 
work  of  Isidore's  for  the  sake  of  claiming  his  authority 
for  it ;  but  the  character  of  the  book  throughout  is 
such  as  to  be  unworthy  of  Isidore.  It  is  probable  that 
the  whole  was  written  in  his  name  by  a  forger,  like 
many  other  documents  connected  with  Church  history 
in  Spain. 

Another  work  which  he  did  not  compile  has  been 
attributed  to  him,  called  Collectio  CanonimtP'  This 
was  an  edition  or  adaptation  of  the  Code  of  Canons 

^  "Jacobus  filius  Zebedaei,  frater  Joanuis,  quartus  in  ordine,  duo- 
decim  tribubus,  quae  sunt  in  dispersione  Gentium  scripsit,  atque  His- 
paniae  et  occidentalium  locorum  gentibus  evangelium  pr^dicavit  et  in 
occasu  mundi  lucem  prsedicationis  infudit.  Hie  ab  Herode  Tetrarcha 
gladio  csesus  occubuit.     Sepultus  in  Marmarica." 

The  grotesque  passage  above  may  be  a  variation  of  a  statement  in 
the  JSIartyrologium  Gellovense  sive  StuicH  Guillelmi  de  Deser/o,  written 
about  804  :  "  Jacobus  qui  interpretatur  supplantator,  filius  Zebedaei, 
frater  Johannis.  Hie  Hispanias  et  occidentalibus  locis  prsedicavit,  et 
sub  Herode  gladio  ctesus  occubuit,  sepultusque  est  in  Achaia  Mar- 
marica, viii.  Kal.  August."  See  Arevalus'  Isidoriana  in  Migne's 
Patrologia.  May  we  find  here,  that  is,  in  the  ninth  century,  the 
origin  of  the  legend  ?  Marmarica  is  still  a  place,  not  a  marble  arch,  as 
it  became  afterwards. 

2  Migne,  Patrologia  Laiina,  torn.  Ixxxiv. 


178        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

formed  by  Dionysius  Exiguus  at  Rome  at  the  end  of 
the  fifth  century.     There  had  been  from  the  time  of 
Hosiiis  a  collection  in  Spain  consisting  of  the  Canons 
of  Nicaea,  Sardica,  Elvira,  and  perhaps  a  few  more. 
This  collection  was  enlarged,  towards  the  end  of  the 
seventh  century,  by  the  addition  to  it  of  the  Canons 
which  Dionysius  Exiguus  had  put  together  from  the 
early  Eastern   and  African    Synods   and  the   earliest 
Decretal  Letters  of  the  Popes,  beginning  with  the  sup- 
posed Letter  of  Siricius,  A.D.  384,  down  to  Anastasius 
II.,  A.D.  496.     This  enlarged  edition  of  the  Hispana 
Collectio  was  attributed  to  Isidore,  as  being  the  most 
learned  man  of  the  century  and  of  Spain,  but  there 
are  no  good  grounds  for  attaching  his  name  to  it.     In 
Italy  the  collection  of  Dionysius,  sometimes  called  the 
Codex  Hadriamis,  because    sent  by  Hadrian  I.  with 
his    approval  to   Charlemagne,   was    regarded    as    the 
authoritative   Code ;    in  Spain  the   Hispana   Collectio, 
attributed  to   Isidore.     But  in  the  year  850  or  there- 
abouts   there    appeared    the   famous    forgery   of   the 
False  Decretals,  which,  like  the  other  collection,  was 
issued  in  the  name  of  Isidore,  not  now  with  a  more  or 
less  innocent  purpose,  but  with  the  deliberate  inten- 
tion of  deceiving  the  Western  Church  into  the  belief 
that  the  forgeries  of  which  it  consists  were  stamped 
as  genuine  by  the  authority  of  the  learned  Bishop  of 
Seville.     Perhaps  no  forgery  ever  made  was  so  suc- 
cessful as  the  Decretals   of  the    Pseudo-Isidore,  and 
none  has  had  such   a  vast  and   permanent   effect    on 
Christendom.     On    it,  as   its    basis,   was    erected  the 
edifice  of  the   Papal  monarchy,  and  when   the  basis 
was  found  to  be  rotten  and  was  knocked   away,  the 


THE  FOURTH  COUNCIL  OF  TOLEDO.  179 

edifice  still  remained,  having  been  propped  up  by  sub- 
structions run  under  it  with  infinite  skill  and  untiring 
perseverance.  Without  the  False  Decretals  it  could 
not  have  been  erected  at  all.  The  work  begins  with 
between  fifty  and  sixty  epistles,  supposed  to  have  been 
written  by  the  Popes  from  the  earliest  times  down  to 
Melchiades,  all  of  which  are  false ;  then  come  some 
falsified  decrees  of  Councils,  then  again  a  second  series 
of  supposed  decretals,  some  of  which  are  forgeries, 
some  adulterated.  The  object  of  the  compilation  was 
to  prove  the  right  of  Papal  intervention  in  all  parts  of 
the  Western  Church,  and  the  pre-eminent  authority  of 
the  Pope  in  matters  ecclesiastical.  It  was  not  till  the 
dawn  of  the  Reformation  that  the  true  character  of 
this  enormous  deception  was  discovered.  From  the 
ninth  century  to  the  fifteenth  it  was  accepted  as  a 
genuine  work  of  Isidore's,  and,  stamped  by  his  name, 
was  regarded  as  true.^ 

1  See  Heinscliius,  Decretales  Psetido-IsidoriancB.     I.ipsiae,  1863. 


CHAPTER    XIV, 

THE  LATER  GOTHIC  KINGS  IN  THEIR  RELATION 
TO  THE  CHURCH. 

Bishop  Isidore  and  King  Sisenand  died  in  the  same 
year,  A.D.  636.  Isidore  was  the  last  of  the  great 
prelates  of  Seville,  the  dignity  of  which  See  more  and 
more  passed  to  the  See  of  Toledo,  though  the  latter 
had  not  yet  attained  to  other  than  metropolitan  rank. 
Sisenand  was  succeeded  by  Chintila,  who,  in  the  first 
year  of  his  reign,  summoned  the  Fifth  Council  of 
Toledo,  and  two  years  afterwards  the  Sixth  Council. 

In  the  Fifth  Council  the  king  proposed  the  appoint- 
ment of  three  days  litanies  every  year,  on  the  13  th, 
14th,  and  15th  of  December,  and  in  his  confirmation 
of  the  Council's  Acts  he  prohibited  his  vassals,  gran- 
dees, counts,  judges,  and  all  others  whatsoever,  from 
doing  any  business  on  those  days,  which  were  to  be 
given  up  to  fasting  and  weeping.  While  the  king  thus 
provided  for  ecclesiastical  matters,  the  bishops,  in  their 
character  of  a  national  parliament,  renewed  a  canon  of 
the  previous  Council,  excommunicating  any  one  guilty 
of  treason,  and  added  to  it  a  canon  of  their  own  excom- 
municating any  pretender  to  the  throne  who  was  not  of 
pure  Gothic  descent,  and  who  had  not  been  lawfully 
elected.  The  canon  against  treason  they  ordered  should 
be  henceforth  read  in  every  Spanish  Council.    The  Sixth 

Council  renewed  with   stronger  anatliemas  the  canon 

180 


THE  LATER  GOTHIC  KINGS.  i8i 

against  treason,  forbade  any  one  to  hold  the  royal 
dignity  who  had  once  put  on  the  dress  of  a  monk,  and 
ordered  that  a  part  of  the  king's  oath  should  be  that 
he  would  no  longer  tolerate  Judaism  in  the  kingdom. 

What  little  force  the  decrees  of  the  Councils  had  in 
matters  secular  is  shown  by  the  fate  of  Tulga,  son  of 
Chintila.     He  had  not  been  two  years  on  the  throne 
when    Kindaswinth  headed  a   rebellion   against   him, 
relegated  him  to  a  monastery,  and  seized  the  throne. 
Kindaswinth  was  a  fierce  old  man,  seventy-nine  years 
of  age,  who  hated  the  supremacy  which  the  Church 
had  begun  to  exercise  over  the  State,  and  was  resolved 
to  vindicate  the   authority   of  the   monarchy  against 
both  the  bishops  and  the  nobles.     He  is  said  to  have 
executed  no  fewer  than  two  hundred  of  the  nobles  of 
the  first  rank  and   five   hundred  of  those  belonging 
to  the  second   class,  besides  driving  many  into  exile 
and  seizing  their  estates.     Having  made  the  factious 
nobility  feel  that  they  had  a  master,  he  turned  upon 
the   Church.      Summoning    the    Seventh    Council   of 
Toledo  in  646,   he  made  the  obsequious  bishops  im- 
mediately, and  without  preface,  as  their  first   canon, 
pass  a  law  depriving,  excommunicating,  and  subjecting 
to  lifelong  penance  any  priest  who  fled  the  country, 
or  aided  and  abetted  any  who  were  traitors  at  home  or 
had  become  refugees  in  foreign  parts.     Such  a  canon 
is  an  indication  of  a  reign  of  terror  extended  over  the 
clergy  as  well  as  the  aristocracy.     The  Council  made 
no  resistance  to  the   king's  will,  and   having   passed 
the   canon,  was  allowed    to    proceed    to  ecclesiastical 
business.       The  sixth  canon  ordered  the  residence  in 
Toledo  of  one  of  the  neighbouring  suffragan  bishops 


i82         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

for  a  month  in  every  year.  This  makes  a  step  towards 
the  Toledan  primacy,  the  MetropoHtan  thus  having  an 
assistant  always  at  his  side;  but  he  still  stood  only 
on  a  level  with  the  other  Metropolitans,  and  on  this 
occasion  signs  third  in  order,  while  the  Metropolitans 
of  Merida  and  Seville  precede  him.  The  occupant  of 
the  See  at  this  time  was  Eugenius  I.,  a  learned  man, 
who  had  some  knowledge  of  astronomy.  He  was 
succeeded  in  the  same  year  that  the  Council  was  held 
by  a  second  Eugenius,  who  was  compelled  by  Kinda- 
swinth  to  accept  the  office.  Eugenius  11.  was  a  man 
of  learning  Hke  his  predecessor,  a  musician,  and  a  far 
from  contemptible  poet.  The  epitaph  which  he  puts 
into  the  mouth  of  Kindaswinth  after  the  lion  was 
dead,  while  it  shows  his  power  of  versification,  ex- 
hibits at  the  same  time  the  bitter  hatred  which  the 
ecclesiastical  party  entertained  for  the  stern  old  king. 
Indeed,  the  lines  could  hardly  have  been  made  pubhc 
as  long  as  the  author  lived  and  Kindaswinth's  son 
Recccswinth  reigned. ^ 

1  "Chindasuinllius  ego  noxamm  semper  amicus, 

Patrator  scelerum  Chindasuinthus  ego. 
Impius,  obsccenus,  probrosus,  turpis,  iniquus, 

Optima  nulla  volens,  pessima  cuncta  valens. 
Quidquid  agit,  qui  prava  cupit,  qui  noxia  quocrit, 

Omnia  commisi,  pejor  et  inde  fui. 
Nulla  fuit  culpa  quam  non  commiitere  vellem, 

Maximus  in  vitiis  et  prior  ipse  fui. 
En  cinis  hie  redii,  sceptra  qui  regia  gessi, 

Purpura  quem  texit,  jam  modo  terra  premit. 
Non  mihi  nunc  prosunt  bil)lattea  tegmina  regni, 

Non  gemmce  virides,  non  diadema  nitens. 
Non  juvat  argentum,  non  fulgens  adjuvat  aurum, 

Aulica  fulchra  nocent,  non  mihi  gaza  placet. 
Omnis  enim  luteae  deceptrix  gloria  vitce 

Ut  flatus  abiit  ;  mox  liquefacta  perit. 
Felix  ille  nimis  et  Christi  munere  felix, 

Qui  tena:  frngiles  semper  abhorret  opes." 


THE  LATER  GOTHIC  KINGS.  183 

When  the  old  man  had  reached  the  age  of  eighty- 
seven,  he  began  to  feel  the  burden  of  the  government  too 
great  for  him,  and  he  was  anxious  to  see  the  succession 
settled  in  his  family  while  he  was  still  there  to  overawe 
the  turbulent  nobles.  Bishop  Braulio  of  Zaragoza  there- 
fore addressed  to  him  an  opportune  petition  praying 
that  he  would  associate  his  son  with  him  in  the  king- 
dom. Kindaswinth  graciously  acceded  to  the  prayer; 
Recceswinth  was  nominated  by  him  and  accepted  by 
the  nation  as  joint-ruler  with  his  father.  Four  years 
later,  A.D.  653,  he  became  sole  king.  In  the  three 
years  following  his  accession  three  Councils  were  held 
'  by  him,  known  as  the  Eighth,  the  Ninth,  and  the  Tenth 
Councils  of  Toledo,  in  the  years  653,  655,  and  656. 
The  first  of  these  confirmed  in  its  tenth  canon  the  right 
and  duty  of  the  prelates  and  nobles  of  the  palace  to 
elect  the  new  king,  on  the  occasion  of  a  vacancy  of  the 
throne,  in  the  city  of  Toledo  or  wherever  the  previous 
king  had  died,  and  ordered  that  the  king-elect  should 
take  a  coronation  oath  before  entering  on  his  office  to 
observe  the  conditions  under  which  he  accepted  it.  The 
character  of  a  parliament  rather  than  of  a  synod,  which 
belonged  to  all  the  Councils  of  Toledo,  was  specially 
impressed  on  this  Council  by  its  Acts  being  signed  not 
only  by  the  bishops  and  their  representatives,  but  by 
eleven  abbots,  an  archpriest,  a  primiceriiis  (head  of 
the  inferior  clergy),  and  seventeen  lay  nobles.  The 
Ninth  Council  is  noticeable  as  the  first  at  which  the 
Bishop  of  Toledo  adopts  the  sounding  title  of  ^'  Metro- 
politan Bishop  of  the  Royal  City."  As  Bishop  Euge- 
nius  was  the  only  metropolitan  present,  he  of  course 
presided  at  it,  and  from  that  time  forward  the  office  of 


i84        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

president  was  always  occupied  by  him  or  his  successors 
at  the  Councils  held  in  Toledo.  The  Tenth  Council 
took  into  consideration  the  case  of  Potamius,  Metro- 
poHtan  of  Braga,  and  deposed  him  on  his  own  con- 
fession of  sin,  showing  that  the  court  of  trial  for  a 
metropolitan  in  the  Spanish  Church  in  the  seventh 
century  was  the  National  Synod.  .  The  Council  unani- 
mously elected  in  his  place  Fructuosus,  Bishop  of 
Dumium,  a  warm  supporter  of  the  monastic  system 
and  the  founder  of  many  monasteries. 

After  holding  these  Councils  so  quickly  one  after  the 
other,  Recceswinth  dispensed  with  his  ecclesiastical 
parliament  for  the  rest  of  his  life,  that  is,  for  seventeen 
years.  Several  explanations  of  this  singular  fact  have 
been  offered,  but  the  most  probable  cause  of  the  king's 
change  of  sentiment  was  a  distrust  of  the  new  Metro- 
politan of  Toledo,  who  succeeded  Eugenius  II.  in  the 
year  after  the  Tenth  Council.  This  was  Ildefonso, 
a  man  of  whom  we  know  scarcely  anything,  but  whose 
reputation  in  Spain,  resting  on  a  legendary  Life  of  him 
written  (if  it  was  written)  by  Bishop  Cixila  rather 
more  than  a  hundred  years  after  his  death,  is  greater 
than  that  of  any  ecclesiastic  except  Isidore.  Nor  are 
we  able  to  be  sure  about  his  written  works  any  more 
than  about  his  acts,  for  it  became  customary  to  attri- 
bute books  and  treatises  of  unknown  authorship  first 
to  Isidore,  and,  if  not  to  him,  to  Ildefonso.  Singularly 
enough,  the  work  which  is  almost  universally  regarded  as 
really  his,  JDe  Viris  Illustribus,  -is  not  one  that  is  attri- 
buted to  him  by  the  only  ''  Life  "  of  him  which  has  any 
claims  to  be  regarded  as  trustworthy;  while  another  work 
which  is  so  attributed  to  him,  De  Cognitione  Baptismi, 


THE  LATER  GOTHIC  KINGS.  185 

is  not  his.  It  is  said  that  he  was  ordained  by  Hella- 
dius,  Bishop  of  Toledo,  and  that  he  became  Abbot  of 
AgaH  about  the  year  650.^  In  the  latter  capacity  he 
was  present  at  the  Eighth  and  Ninth  Councils  of  Toledo, 
and  was  appointed  Bishop  of  Toledo  in  657,  and  died 
in  66y.  This  is  all  that  is  related  of  him  in  the  Life 
of  him  supposed  to  have  been  written  by  Julian, 
a  successor  in  the  See  of  Toledo;  but  legend  has 
revelled  with  his  name.  There  is  extant  a  book  on 
the  Virginity  of  S.  Mary  supposed  (perhaps  truly)  to 
have  been  written  by  him.  In  return  for  this  book  the 
later  ecclesiastical  historians  of  Spain  assure  us  that 
S.  Mary  appeared  to  him  in  the  Cathedral  of  Toledo 
on  the  Feast  of  the  Annunciation  at  midnight,  sur- 
rounded by  a  company  of  virgins,  and  after  thanking 
him  for  defending  her  against  the  calumnies  of  Helvi- 
dius,  Bonosus,  and  an  unnamed  Jew,  presented  him 
with  a  cassock  to  wear  in  her  memory,  which  was 
afterwards  carried  to  Oviedo  and  preserved  in  the 
cathedral  in  a  silver  chest  with  other  relics.^  The 
following  is  another  miraculous  tale  of  Ildefonso,  which 

^  Rodrigo  el  Cerratense  says  that  on  his  first  going  to  the  monastery 
of  Agali,  he  was  pursued  by  his  father,  and  that  seeing  his  father  behind 
him,  he  hid  behind  an  old  wall  till  he  saw  his  father  leave  the  monas- 
tery, when  he  immediately  took  the  habit. 

2  Morales  says  that  "this  sovereign  miracle  is  one  of  the  most  certain 
and  assured  things  that  the  Church  of  Spain  has  in  the  matter  of 
miracles"  [Coron.,  iii.  187),  and  Masdeu  does  not  venture  to  reject  it 
{Historia  Ci'itica,  vol.  xi.  p.  131).  Cixila  says  that  the  saint  found  the 
Lady  herself  sitting  in  the  bishop's  ivory  chair  (which  no  bishop  ever 
afterwards  dared  to  sit  upon  except  Sisebert,  who  immediately  lost  his 
See),  and  the  whole  apse  full  of  troops  of  virgins  chanting  softly  the 
Psalms  of  David.  Rodrigo  Cerratense  says  that  they  were  singing  the 
praises  of  S.  Mary,  and  that  the  present  made  to  Ildefonso  was  "the 
vestment  that  we  call  an  alb,"  and  that  on  the  next  bishop,  Siargius 
(there  was  no  such  bishop),  daring  to  put  it  on,  he  was  seized  with 
cramp  and  fell  down  dead  (.Florez,  Esp.  Sagr.,  v.  489,  506). 


i86        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

we  give  in  Morales'  words.  No  true  impression  of  Spain 
can  be  given  if  we  omit  these  stories  altogether  from 
our  narrative,  for  they  became  to  the  Spaniards  more 
real  than  the  facts  of  history,  more  true  than  Scripture. 
''  S.  Ildefonso  went  one  day  with  King  Recceswinth 
and  all  the  court  to  celebrate  the  festival  of  S.  Leocadia 
in  the  church  called  after  her,  in  which  she  was  also 
buried.  The  holy  archbishop  being  arrived  at  the 
blessed  sepulchre,  knelt  (down  there  to  pray,  and  as  he 
was  praying  he  saw  the  sepulchre  open  of  its  own 
accord,  the  stone  above  it,  which,  Cixila  says,  thirty 
men  could  not  have  moved,  slowly  sliding  from  the 
mouth  of  the  tomb.  And  immediately  the  holy  virgin 
arose,  after  lying  there  300  years,  and  holding  out  her 
arm,  she  shook  hands  with  S.  Ildefonso,  speaking  in 
this  wise  :  '  O  Ildefonso,  through  thee  doth  the  honour 
of  my  Lady  flourish  ! '  All  the  spectators  were  silent, 
being  struck  with  the  novelty  and  greatness  of  the 
miracle ;  only  S.  Ildefonso,  with  Heaven's  aid,  replied 
to  her,  ^  Glorious  virgin,  worthy  of  reigning  with  God 
in  heaven,  since  for  His  love  thou  didst  despise  and 
offer  up  thy  life,  happy  is  this  city  which  thou  didst 
consecrate  with  thy  death  ;  and  its  joy  is  now  increased 
in  seeing  thee,  who  dost  triumph  with  God  in  glory ;  a 
mighty  testimony  this  for  the  Christian  faith  and  for 
the  sweet  consolation  of  thy  citizens,  who  believe  in 
it  as  becomes  Christians.  And  I  beseech  thee,  lady, 
turn  thine  eyes  from  heaven  on  this  city,  whicli  begot 
and  reared  thee  to  be  what  thou  art.  Aid  by  thine 
intercession  and  prayers  both  thy  countrymen  and  the 
king,  who  with  much  devotion  doth  frequent  thy  temple 
and  celebrate  thy  feast ! '     Now  the  holy  virgin  looked 


THE  LATER  GOTHIC  KINGS.  187 

as  if  she  wished  to  return  into  her  tomb,  and  she  turned 
round  for  that  purpose ;  then  King  Recceswinth  begged 
of  S.  Ildefonso  that  he  would  not  let  her  go  unless 
she  left  some  relic  of  her  behind,  both  for  a  memorial 
of  the  miracle  and  for  the  consolation  of  the  city.  And 
as  S.  Ildefonso  wished  to  cut  a  part  of  the  white 
veil  which  covered  the  head  of  S.  Leocadia,  the  king 
lent  him  a  knife  for  the  purpose,  and  this  must  have 
been  a  poniard  or  dagger,  though  others  say  it  was  a 
sword.  With  this  the  saint  cut  a  large  piece  of  that 
blessed  veil,  and  while  he  was  giving  it  to  the  king,  at 
the  same  time  returning  the  knife,  the  saint  shut  herself 
up  entirely,  and  covered  herself  in  the  tomb  with  the 
huge  stone.  The  king  commanded  the  veil  and  the 
knife  to  be  preserved  with  great  veneration  in  the 
sacristy  of  the  cathedral :  to  this  day  both  are  honoured 
and  shown  in  that  holy  church."  ^ 

^  Morales,  iii.  158,  Dunham's  translation.  The  original  story  is  to 
be  found  in  Cixila's  Vita  S.  Ildefonsi  {Esp.  Sagr.,  v.  486),  and  in  the 
Vita  Beati  Ildefonsi,  by  Rodrigo  Cerratense,  a  writer  of  the  thirteenth 
century  (ibid.,  505)'  Cixila  says  that  the  lid  of  the  tomb,  which  thirty 
young  men  could  not  stir,  was  raised  by  the  hands  of  angels,  and  the 
veil  which  covered  Leocadia  lifted  itself  as  though  it  had  been  alive 
and  the  most  beautiful  virgin  came  forward  into  Ildefonso's  sight ;  on 
which  all  the  bishops,  princes,  presbyters,  and  deacons,  clergy,  and 
people,  cried  out,  "Thanks  to  God  in  heaven!  thanks  to  God  on 
earth  ! "  Leocadia  then  embraced  him  with  her  hands  and  exclaimed, 
"Thanks  to  God  !  my  Lady  lives  by  the  life  of  Ildefonso  !  "  (This 
Rodrigo  thinks  meant  that  belief  in  the  virginity  of  S.  Mary  had  been 
made  to  live  in  Spain  by  the  efforts  of  Ildefonso.)  Then  the  people 
shouted  again  and  stood  with  open  mouths.  Ildefonso  raised  his  voice 
amidst  the  clamour  with  a  bellow  {quasi  mugiens)  and  called  for  some- 
thing to  cut  the  veil  with,  as  the  holy  virgin  was  violently  dragging 
it  back.  Recceswinth  pulled  out  a  little  knife,  and  bowing  his  neck 
and  holding  out  his  hands  in  supplication,  besought  those  about  him  to 
carry  it  to  Ildefonso.  The  bishop  seized  the  knife  with  his  right  hand, 
and  still  holding  on  to  the  veil  with  his  left  hand,  cut  off  a  piece  of  it, 
and  deposited  it  with  the  knife  in  the  reliquary.  This  is  the  first  form 
of  the  legend. 


i88         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

It  is  easy  to  imagine  that  the  king  may  have  felt 
apprehensive  of  the  results  of  a  Council  presided  over 
by  such  a  prelate  as  Ildefonso,  and  there  are  some  in- 
dications of  disagreement  between  them.  CixiJa  tells 
us  the  saint  reproved  the  king.^  Isidore  Pacensis 
speaks  of  the  king  as  being  in  the  latter  part  of  his 
life  fiagitiosus^  and  Roderick  Sanchez  de  Arevalo, 
Bishop  of  Palencia,  declares  that  ''he  was  as  bad  as 
possible,  for  he  used  to  sacrifice  to  demons."  A 
Council  was  allowed  to  be  held  at  Merida  in  666^  but 
there  Ildefonso  had  not  to  preside.  Whatever  the 
cause  was,  there  were  no  more  Councils  at  Toledo  till 
Recceswinth  died,  nor  till  the  fourth  year  of  his 
successor. 

Recceswinth's  reign  was  longer  and  more  peaceful 
than  that  of  any  of  his  predecessors  or  successors  on 
the  throne.  He  occupied  himself  in  perfecting  the 
Visigothic  code  of  laws,  and  legalised  for  the  first  time 
intermarriage  between  the  old  conquerors  and  their 
subjects  the  Goths  and  the  Romans.^ 

Wamba  was  elected  to  succeed  Recceswinth,  and  we 
are  told  by  Bishop  Julian,  who  wrote  an  account  of 
the  early  years  of  his  reign,  that  he  was  anointed  by 
Quiricus,  Bishop  of  Toledo.  Whether  the  ceremony  of 
anointing  was  first  used  or  first  mentioned  on  this 
occasion  in  Spanish  history  does  not  appear.  The 
first  year  of  the  new  king's  reign  was  spent  in  putting 


^  Vicia  de  vSan  Ildefonso. 

2  A  magnificent  crown  once  worn  by  Recceswinth,  and  afterwards 
offered  by  him  to  the  Cathedral  of  Toledo,  was  dug  up  in  the  year 
1858  at  Fuente  de  Guarrazar,  an^  is  now  deposited  in  the  Museum  of 
the  Hotel  de  Cluny  in  Paris.  It  is  sufficient  of  itself  to  prove  to  us 
how  costly  were  the  offerings  made  by  the  Gothic  kings  to  the  Church. 


THE  LATER  GOTHIC  KINGS.  189 

down  an  insurrection  of  the  Basques,  and  crushing  a 
rebelHon  in  Narbonensis,  headed  at  first  by  Count 
Hilderic  of  Nismes  and  Bishop  Gumildus  of  Mague- 
lonne,  and  afterwards  by  Duke  Paul,  who  had  been 
sent  by  Wamba  to  attack  the  rebels.  Paul  and  his 
associates  were  defeated  in  the  field,  driven  to  take 
refuge  in  the  amphitheatre  of  Nismes,  obliged  to  sub- 
mit to  the  conqueror,  and  sentenced  to  undergo  the 
penalty  of  decalvation  (by  which  the  skin  was  torn  or 
burnt  from  the  head)  and  thrown  into  prison  after 
having  been  led  in  triumph  through  the  streets  of 
Toledo.  Warned  by  what  had  happened,  Wamba 
issued  a  law  commanding  not  only  laymen,  but  clergy, 
to  be  always  ready  to  resist  invasion  or  rebellion,  and 
inflicting  the  penalty  of  fine  or  banishment  on  any 
bishop,  priest,  or  deacon  who  failed  to  do  his  duty  to 
the  State  on  emergency  by  personal  service. 

Having  settled  the  civil  affairs  of  his  kingdom, 
Wamba  allowed  two  Councils  to  be  held,  one  at  Braga, 
for  the  first  (and  last)  time  since  Galicia  had  been 
made  a  part  of  the  Gothic  kingdom ;  the  other  at 
Toledo,  where  Quiricus  had  now  succeeded  Ildefonso  as 
bishop.  Both  Councils  confined  themselves,  probably 
by  the  king's  command,  to  matters  of  ecclesiastical 
discipline,  and  did  not  meddle  with  political  affairs. 
The  Council  of  Braga  is  remarkable  as  giving  the  first 
indication  of  the  existence  in  the  West  of  a  practice 
which  has  become  universal  in  the  East,  but  was 
uniformly  condemned  in  the  West  as  heretical,  except 
for  a  short  period  in  the  twelfth  century,  when  it  was 
allowed  as  a  step  towards  the  denial  of  the  cup.  This 
is  the  practice  of  dipping  the  bread  in  the  wine  before 


I90        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

administration.  Some  semi-heretical  priests  in  Galicia 
were  found  to  have  done  this,  while  others  used  milk 
or  the  unfermented  juice  of  grapes  instead  of  wine. 
These  practices  are  forbidden  in  the  first  canon  of  the 
Council.  Another  canon,  increasing  the  severity  of 
canons  which  had  been  passed  again  and  again  since 
the  introduction  of  clerical  celibacy  into  Spain,  pro- 
hibits any  woman  whatsoever  living  in  the  same  house 
with  a  priest,  except  only  his  mother. 

The  Council  of  Toledo,  called  the  Eleventh,  deals, 
like  that  of  Braga,  with  Church  discipline.  The  fifth 
canon  imposes  the  penalty  of  degradation,  exile,  and 
excommunication  on  any  bishop  who  seduced  the 
wife  or  daughter  of  any  man  of  rank,  or  was  guilty  of 
causing  the  death  or  grave  injury  of  any  member  of 
a  nobleman's  family.  The  limitation  shows  the  oli- 
garchical character  of  the  country,  and  the  little  con- 
ception entertained  by  the  Council  of  sin  as  distinct 
from  crime.  The  seventh  and  eighth  canons  are 
directed  against  simony,  the  punishment  for  which  is 
two  years'  degradation.  The  Council  ends  with  re- 
turning thanks  by  acclamation  to  King  Wamba  as  the 
restorer  of  the  discipline  of  the  Church. 

That  Wamba  took  serious  interest  in  the  welfare 
of  the  Church  is  shown  by  his  instituting  two  new 
bishoprics;  but  he  appears  to  have  acted  in  a  high- 
handed manner  by  right  of  his  royal  supremacy  rather 
than  the  advice  of  his  prelates  and  nobles,  and  in  the 
next  reign  the  two  new  bishoprics  were  suppressed. 
It  is  probable  also  that  his  permitting  only  a  Provincial 
instead  of  a  National  Council  to  be  held  in  Toledo 
gave  offence  to  the  nobles,  who  had  now  made  good 


THE  LATER  GOTHIC  KINGS.  191 

their  right  to  sit  in  a  National  Council.  The  burden 
which  he  had  laid  on  bishops  and  nobles  alike  of 
defending  the  country  in  case  of  invasion  and  rebellion 
also  had  a  tendency  to  make  him  unpopular.  His  fall 
came  in  a  singular  way.  He  was  taken  ill,  and  became 
insensible.  In  this  state  he  was  dressed  as  a  penitent 
or  monk,  and  tonsured  as  being  a  dying  man.  But 
he  did  not  die.  His  senses  returned  to  him,  and  he 
recovered.  But  he  had  been  habited  as  a  monk,  and 
therefore,  by  the  existing  law,  he  could  no  longer  be 
king.  He  was  well  aware  that  his  illness  had  been 
superinduced  by  a  drug,  and  that  his  having  been  in 
a  state  of  unconsciousness  when  the  penitential  habit 
was  put  upon  him  might  well  prevent  the  law  from 
applying  to  him,  but  he  had  none  to  support  him, 
and  the  opposite  faction  was  strong.  He  saved  his 
life  by  signing  an  Act  of  abdication  and  nominating 
the  head  of  the  adverse  party  as  his  successor.  He 
retired  into  a  monastery,  but  he  was  still  dangerous, 
and  he  died  in  the  course  of  a  year. 

^  Masdeu  thus  describes  this  custom  : — "  Desde  el  siglo  quinto  o 
principios  del  sexto  preveleiro  en  Espana  la  costumbre  de  que  los 
enfermos,  viendose  agravados  y  en  peligro  de  muerte,  tomaban  per 
devocion  la  tonsura  y  el  habito  de  penitencia  obligando  se  a  llevarlo 
perpetuamente,  se  Dies  les  daba  vida.  ...  Si  el  moribundo  per  la 
gravedad  del  mal  no  tenia  advertencia  para  pedir  el  habito,  sus  pari- 
entes  o  amigos  se  lo  ponian,  como  si  el  mi&mo  lo  hubiese  pedido.  .  .  . 
Dichos  penitentes  podian  morar  en  suscasas  sin  cerrarse  en  Monasterio, 
pero  llevando  siempre  la  cabeza  raida  y  el  habito  religioso,  separados 
de  todo  negocio  y  diversion,  y  viviendo  con  exemplaridad  y  castidad, 
sin  poder  ni  casarse  si  eran  celibates  ni  cohabitarcon  la  muger  o  marido 
si  lo  tenian,  de  manera  que  aunque  no  claustrales,  eran  religiosos  y  con- 
sagrados  a  Dios." — Historia  Crittca,  vol.  xi.  p,  272. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

BISHOP  JULIAN  AND  THE  PRIMACY  OF  TOLEDO. 

The  nominal  head  of  the  conspiracy  was  Erwig,  and 
he  was  accordingly  declared  king,  but  the  chief  power 
remained  in  the  hands  of  Julian,  Bishop  of  Toledo, 
who  had  been  appointed  to  the  See  a  few  months 
before  Wamba's  deposition.  Erwig's  first  act  was  to 
summon  a  Council,  known  as  the  Twelfth  Council  of 
Toledo.  The  acts  of  this  Council  show  the  character 
of  the  revolution  that  had  been  effected.  The  king 
presented  himself  before  the  assembled  bishops,  abbots, 
and  nobles,  with  a  declaration  that,  without  doubt. 
Councils  served  as  a  remedy  for  all  the  evils  of  the 
world,  and  that  the  present  Council  was  the  salt  of  the 
earth,  and  he  besought  them  to  apply  to  the  diseases 
of  the  State  the  remedies  which  the  times  required. 
In  particular,  he  begged  them  to  confirm  iiis  election, 
to  approve  further  laws  against  the  Jews,  and  to  de- 
clare null  and  void  the  military  laws  of  his  predecessor. 
The  first  canon  of  the  Council  absolved  the  nation 
from  its  oath  of  fidelity  to  Wamba  and  confirmed  the 
election  of  Erwig,  who  had  been  already  anointed  by 
Julian.  The  second  showed  the  nature  of  the  plot 
which  had  caused  Wamba's  deposition,  b}^  arguing 
that  any  man  who  had  been  clothed  in  the  penitential 

habit,  even  though  the  act  were  done  against  his  will, 

'192 


THE  PRIMACY  OF  TOLEDO.  193 

was  bound  to  observe  the  promises  which  the  accept- 
ance of  the  habit  symbolised,  and  thenceforward  to 
give  up  the  world.  If  the  baptismal  vow,  the  prelates 
argued,  was  binding  on  children,  although  they  were 
unconscious  at  the  time  of  their  baptism,  the  effect  of 
taking  the  penitential  or  monastic  habit  under  like 
circumstances  would  hkewise  be  valid.  The  third 
canon  readmits  to  Communion  those  that  had  been 
excommunicated  for  treason  in  the  last  reign,  but  had 
now  received  the  king's  pardon.  The  fourth  canon 
annuls  the  Act  of  the  late  king  in  establishing  the  two 
new  bishoprics,  one  of  which  was  offensive  to  Stephen, 
the  Metropolitan  of  Merida,  and  the  other  to  the  all- 
powerful  Julian.  The  seventh  canon  restores  to  their 
honours  all  who  had  suffered  for  the  non-observance 
of  Wamba's  military  law.  But  the  most  important  act 
of  this  Council  was  the  passing  of  the  sixth  canon, 
which  establishes,  for  the  first  time,  the  primacy  of 
the  See  of  Toledo,  at  the  instance,  doubtless,  of  the 
strong-willed  Julian. 

We  have  before  seen  that  Toledo  was  not  originally 
even  a  metropolitan  See.  It  was  in  the  province  of 
Carthaginensis,  and  Cartagena  was  the  metropoHtan 
See  of  the  province  as  soon  as  the  metropolitical  system 
had  been  introduced.  After  Cartagena  had  been  sacked 
by  the  Vandals  in  425,  Toledo  began  to  lift  up  its 
head  and  to  call  itself  a  metropolis ;  and  when  Leovi- 
gild  transferred  the.  royal  residence  from  Seville  to 
Toledo,  the  bishop  of  the  royal  city  could  no  longer 
endure  inferior  rank.  Accordingly,  in  the  reign  of 
Leovigild's  son,  Reccared,  the  Bishop  of  Toledo  sub- 
scribed the  Acts  of  the  Third  Council,  A.D.    589,  as 


194        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

metropolitan,  not  yet  of  Carthaginensis,  but  of  Carpe- 
tania,  a  division  of  Carthaginensis.  Next  came  the 
decree  of  Gundemar,  in  which  the  king  constituted  the 
Bishop  of  Toledo  metropolitan  of  the  whole  province, 
A.D.  6iO.  In  the  Ninth  Council,  A.D.  655,  the  Bishop 
of  Toledo,  for  the  first  time,  presided  over  a  National 
Council,  describing  himself  as  the  "metropolitan 
bishop  of  the  royal  city,"  and  from  that  time  forward 
no  bishop  presided  at  the  Councils  of  Toledo  except 
the  metropolitan  of  that  province.  Still,  however,  the 
bishop  was  only  a  brother  metropolitan  among  six 
ecclesiastical  equals.  The  time  was  now  come  when, 
Julian  resolved,  he  should  not  be  an  equal  or  even 
a  primus  inter  pares ^  but  the  Primate  of  the  National 
Church.  The  sixth  canon  of  the  Twelfth  Council  there- 
fore decreed,  A.D.  681,  that  the  MetropoHtan  of  Toledo 
might  choose  and  consecrate  bishops  for  all  the  pro- 
vinces of  the  kingdom,  and  might  place  in  any  vacant 
See  those  whom  the  king  selected  and  the  judgment  of 
the  Bishop  of  Toledo  approved,  and  that  it  was  not  neces- 
sary to  consult  the  various  Churclics  concerned,  though 
it  was  proper  that  the  new  bishop  should  present  him- 
self before  his  own  metropolitan  in  the  course  of  three 
months.  This  ordinance  overthrew  the  whole  process 
of  election  as  it  was  laid  down  in  the  Fourth  Council 
of  Toledo,  and  as  it  still  existed  in  theory,  which  was 
that  the  clergy  and  laity  of  the  diocese  should  elect, 
the  metropolitan  and  suftragans  should  consecrate, 
and  the  Crown  should  confirm.  Already  the  King 
had  so  far  innovated  on  the  ancient  constitution  as  to 
nominate  out  of  a  list  of  names  supplied  to  him  by 
the  vacant  diocese.      Henceforth  the  whole  power  of 


THE  PRIMACY  OF  TOBEDO.  195 

appointing  bishops  throughout  the  realm  was  concen- 
trated in  his  hands  and  those  of  the  Bishop  of  Toledo, 
acting  together. 

It  appears  to  have  been  the  judgment  of  the  Spanish 
Church  and  nation  that  the  time  was  come  for  the  con- 
stitution of  the  National  Church  to  be  completed  by 
the  estabhshment  of  a  primacy.     None  of  the  other 
metropohtans  protested  against  the  canon  as  an  in- 
vasion of  their  privileges — perhaps  they  thought  that 
the  voice  of  the  single  Primate  would  be  more  power- 
ful in  checking  the  king's  appointments  than  their  own. 
In  the  Thirteenth  Council,  held   two  years  later,  the 
Acts  of  the  Twelfth  Council  were  emphatically  approved, 
and   the   metropolitans   there  present   refrained  from 
entitling  themselves  otherwise  than  as  simple  bishops, 
while  Julian  alone  subscribed  as  '^  metropolitan  bishop 
of  the  holy  Church  of  Toledo."     Things  had,  as  we 
have  seen,  been  long  working  up  to  this  point,  and  the 
force  of  Julian's  personahty  brought  about  the  event 
which,  if  the  See  had  been  occupied  by  a  weaker  man, 
might  have  been  delayed  till  the  Church  and  Bishopric 
of  Toledo  were  swept  away  by  the  Moors.     As  it  was, 
Toledo  acquired  the  dignity  of  the   Primatial  See  of 
Spain  in  the  year  681   by  the  act  of  the   bishops   of 
Spain  and  the   great   Council   of  the   nation.      Four 
hundred  years  later,  when  Toledo  was  recovered  from 
the  Moors  and  the  Christian   Church  once  more  re- 
estabhshed   in   power,   a    Frenchman   was    appointed 
Bishop  of  Toledo,  and  he  accepted  the  title  of  Primate, 
not  as  a  dignity  inherent  in  the  See  of  Toledo,  but  by 
a  formal  act  of  Urban  II.,  which  attributed  to  the  See 
of  Rome  the  right  of  instituting  and  reinstituting  the 


196        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

primacy.^  From  the  date  of  Urban's  Bull,  A.D.  1088, 
the  Primates  of  Spain  have  been  the  most  submissive 
of  vassals  to  the  Primate  of  Italy,  but  it  was  rather  as 
a  rival  institution  to  the  Roman  Papacy  than  as  a  prop 
to  it  that  Julian  concentrated  in  the  See  of  Toledo  the 
authority  of  the  whole  Spanish  Church.  This  may  be 
seen  thus :  At  the  close  of  the  Thirteenth  Council, 
which  was  held  two  years  after  the  Twelfth,  letters 
arrived  in  Spain  from  Pope  Leo  II.,  requesting  the 
adhesion  of  the  Spanish  Church  to  the  decrees  of 
the  Sixth  Oecumenical  Council,  which  had  been  held  at 
Constantinople  against  Monothelitism.^  The  Spanish 
Council  having  already  broken  up,  Julian,  as  Primate 
of  the  Church,  despatched  a  treatise  to  Rome  dealing 
with   the   theological   question,  to  which  he  gave  the 

^  " Pallium  tibi  frater  Ven.  Beinarde  ex  Apostolorum  Petri  et  Pauli 
benedictione  conferimus,  plenitudinem  scilicet  omnis  Sacerdotalis 
dif^nitatis  ;  teque,  sicut  ejusdem  Urbis  antiquitus  constat  exstiiisse 
Pontifices,  in  totis  Hispaniarum  regnis  Primatum  privilegii  nostri 
sanctione  statuimus.  .  .  .  Primatum  te  universi  Hispaniarum  presides 
respiciant,  et  ad  te,  si  quid  intra  eos  qusestione  dignum  exortum  fuerit, 
referant,  salva  tamen  Romance  auctoritate  ecclesia  et  Metropolitanorum 
privilegiis  singulorum.  .  .  .  Hrec  et  caetera  omnia  quce  ad  antiquam 
Toletanre  Sedis  dignitatem  atque  nobilitatem  probari  poterunt  per- 
tinuisse,  auctoritate  certa,  Sedis  Apostolicce  concessione,  nos  tibi  tuisque 
successoribus  perpetuo  possidenda  concedimus  atque  firmamus." — Bu// 
of  Urban  II. 

2  These  letters  were  four,  addressed  (i)  to  the  Spanish  bishops,  (2) 
to  Quiricus  (who  had,  however,  been  dead  more  than  three  years),  (3)  to 
Count  Simplicius,  (4)  to  King  Erwig.  The  first  declares  Theodore, 
Cyrus,  Sergius,  and  Pope  Honorius  to  have  been  "convicted  as  traitors 
to  the  purity  of  the  Apostolic  tradition,  and  to  have  gone  into  eternal 
condemnation  as  their  punishment;"  while  the  last  states  that  Pope 
Honorius  had  been  ** condemned  by  the  venerable  Council"  (Constan- 
tinople II.),  and  thereby  "cast  out  of  the  communion  of  the  Catholic 
Church."  No  surprise  is  shown  by  the  Spanish  Church  at  hearing 
from  a  Pope,  in  an  official  document,  that  a  Pope  had  been  excom- 
municated by  an  CEcumenical  Council  for  heresy,  and  that  a  Pope 
pronounced  the  excommunication  to  be  deserved.  Nor  was  it  a  sur- 
prise to  any  of  Pope  Leo's  contemporaries. 


THE  PRIMACY  OF  TOLEDO,  197 

name  of  Apologetiaun  fidei,  and  forwarded  copies  of 
the  Constantinopolitan  decrees  to  the  five  metropoli- 
tans of  Spain  for  their  consideration,  and  that  of  their 
suffragans.  The  following  year,  A.D.  684,  the  Four- 
teenth Council  of  Toledo  met,  at  which  Julian  presided, 
and  representatives  of  the  five  metropolitans  were 
present.  This  Council  accepted  the  decrees  of  Con- 
stantinople as  orthodox,  and  ordered  that  they  should 
be  added  to  the  Codex  Canomim  of  the  Spanish 
Church,  immediately  after  the  decrees  of  Nicaea,  Con- 
stantinople I.,  Ephesus,  and  Chalcedon.  It  also  entered 
at  some  length  into  the  doctrine  at  issue  respecting 
the  two  wills  of  Christ  in  four  canons  drawn  up  by 
Julian,  probably  in  the  very  words  of  his  Apologeticiwt. 
The  final  canon  places  Julian's  treatise  on  a  level  with 
decretal  letters  in  regard  to  the  respect  that  is  to  be 
paid  to  it.  Two  years  later  the  Pope,  Benedict  II., 
ventured  to  object  to  some  of  the  statements  in  Julian's 
letter  as  being  at  the  least  incautious.  Without  a 
moment's  delay  Julian  wrote,  and  sent  to  the  Pope, 
a  defence  of  his  treatise,  maintaining  the  orthodoxy 
of  the  two  statements  to  which  the  Pope  had  objected, 
which  were,  that  in  the  Divinity  Will  begat  Will, 
and  that  in  Christ  there  were  three  substances.  Soul, 
Body,  and  Divinity.  Having  apparently  received  no 
satisfactory  answer  from  the  Pope,  Julian  brought 
the  matter  before  the  Fifteenth  Council  of  Toledo, 
which  was  held  in  the  year  688.  The  Council,  which 
represented  the  whole  Church  of  Spain,  consisting 
of  metropolitans,  bishops,  abbots,  and  nobles,  sided 
as  one  man  with  the  Primate,  pronounced  his  Apolo- 
geticum  to  be  orthodox,  and  supported  its  statements 


198        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

by  the  authority  of  the  early  Fathers.  If  the  Pope  and 
his  advisers  continued  to  raise  objection,  the  Spanish 
Churchmen  would  follow  the  steps  of  their  ancestors, 
and  all  who  love  the  truth  would  regard  their  answer 
as  not  only  satisfactory  but  sublime,  however  much 
ignorant  rivals  might  be  displeased  at  it.  The  Italian 
Primate  was  not  prepared  to  enter  into  a  struggle  with 
a  Spanish  Primate  such  as  Julian.  The  Pope  tem- 
porised. Julian's  second  Apologetic  was  accepted 
graciously  and  made  known,  according  to  Isidore 
Pacensis,  to  the  Emperor  of  Constantinople,  who 
found  all  that  Julian  had  written  to  be  right  and 
good,  and  returned  him  his  thanks  for  it.  Thus  the 
matter  blew  over.  Before  another  occasion  arose  for 
the  Primates  of  Italy  and  Spain  to  measure  their 
strength  together  the  Church  of  Spain  had  been 
trodden  underfoot  by  the  Saracens,  who  thus  removed 
from  the  Papal  path  an  inconvenient  obstacle  to  his 
supremacy  in  the  West,  as  the  Vandals  had  previously 
done  by  crushing  the  Church  of  Cyprian. 

King  Erwig  died  the  year  before  the  important 
Fifteenth  Council  was  held,  which  was  summoned 
in  the  first  year  of  his  reign  by  Egica  and  confirmed 
by  him.  Egica  was  the  nephew  or  cousin  of  Wamba, 
and  had  married  Cixilo,  the  daughter  of  Erwig.  He 
thus  represented  a  coalition  of  the  two  parties  which 
had  torn  the  Gothic  Court  asunder  in  the  reigns  of 
his  two  predecessors.  One  of  his  first  acts  was  to 
lay  before  the  bishops  in  Council  a  question  of 
casuistry  for  them  to  solve.  Erwig  had  made  him 
take  an  oath  to  protect,  in  their  lives  and  properties, 
the  late  kino's  widow  and  relatives.     When  he  became 


THE  PRIMACY  OF  TOLEDO.  199 

king  he  had  taken  an  oath  to  do  justice  to  all  his 
people.  How  could  he  keep  both  oaths  ?  And,  if 
that  were  not  possible,  which  of  the  two  was  to  yield 
to  the  other  ?  The  bishops,  who  had  already  at  the 
beginning  of  Erwig's  reign  taken  upon  themselves 
to  absolve  the  people  from  their  oath  of  fidelity  to 
Wamba  (the  first  occasion  on  which  such  a  right  had 
been  claimed  and  exercised  by  ecclesiastics),  had  no 
difficulty  in  dealing  with  the  question.  They  absolved 
Egica  from  the  obligation  of  his  oath  to  Erwig  as 
being  incompatible  with  the  higher  obligation  of  his 
constitutional  oath.  The  solution  of  the  difficulty 
was  no  doubt  suggested  and  drafted  by  Julian,  who 
presided  over  the  Council. 

This  great  prelate  seems  to  have  exercised  as 
overwhelming  an  influence  in  the  reign  of  Egica  as 
he  did  in  the  reign  of  Erwig.  Two  years  after  this 
time  he  died,  after  ten  years'  occupation  of  the  See, 
having  lived  long  enough  to  show  what  an  enormous 
power  the  Primate  of  the  Spanish  Church  might  have 
been  in  Western  Christendom  had  the  See  of  Toledo 
ever  again  been  filled  by  a  man  of  his  genius  and 
force  of  will.  But  it  never  was.  Of  his  predecessors 
in  the  Spanish  episcopate,  none  can  be  compared  to 
Julian  for  learning  with  the  exception  of  Isidore 
(whom  he  surpassed  in  his  literary  style),  nor  in  the 
power  which  he  exerted  over  the  course  of  events, 
except  Isidore's  brother  Leander — if  we  put  aside  from 
our  consideration  the  great  Hosius  as  belonging  to 
pre-Gothic  times. 

JuHan  was  succeeded  by  Sisibert,  in  the  year  690. 
Though  nominated  by  the  king,  the  Bishop  was  found, 


200         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

at  the  end  of  two  or  three  years,  to  be  implicated  in 
a  conspiracy  which  had  for  its  object  the  murder  of 
Egica  and  the  royal  family,  the  causes  of  which  are 
unknown  to  us.  The  king  deposed  the  ambitious 
prelate,  and  exerting  the  authority  assigned  to  him 
by  the  canons  of  the  last  Council,  nominated  and 
appointed  Felix  Metropolitan  of  Seville  in  his  room. 
Immediately  after  this  occurrence  Egica  called  together 
the  Sixteenth  Council  of  Toledo,  and  requested  its 
confirmation  of  the  appointment  of  Felix.  The  Coun- 
cil confirmed  the  deposition  of  Sisibert  by  its  ninth 
canon,  and  added  to  it  the  penalties  of  excommuni- 
cation and  banishment,  declaring  kings  to  be  the  vicars 
and  the  anointed  of  God. 

It  would  appear,  from  a  passage  in  an  address  made 
by  Egica  to  the  Fifteenth  Council,  that  Sisibert's  plot 
must  have  been  far-reaching  and  of  great  peril  to  the 
State,  for  the  king  desires  the  Council  to  take  measures 
against  any  who  aspire  to  obtaining  the  throne  by 
insolence  and  boasting,  and  attempt  to  slay  the  king, 
and  bring  about  *'  the  ruin  of  the  race  and  country 
of  the  Goths."  It  would  almost  appear  as  though 
Sisibert  anticipated  the  treason  of  Oppas.  His  suc- 
cessor, Felix,  was  an  admirer  and  imitator  of  Julian, 
whose  life  he  wrote,  but  he  was  a  man  in  all  respects 
feebler  than  that  great  prelate. 

The  remaining  business  of  the  Sixteenth  Council 
was  confined  to  matters  of  Church  discipHne,  with 
the  exception  of  the  usual  order  for  enforcing  the 
persecution  of  the  Jews.  The  second  canon  shows 
that  idolatry  was  not  yet  extirpated  from  Spain.  It 
was    still    prevalent    among    the    slaves,    and   not  un- 


THE  PRIMACY  OF  TOLEDO.  201 

known  among  freemen,  who  are  threatened  with 
banishment  and  excommunication  if  they  are  dis- 
covered. Canons  of  the  Twelfth  Council  and  the 
Sixteenth  Council  order  that  if  a  priest  says  more 
than  one  Mass  a  day  he  is  to  communicate  not  only 
once,  but  each  time  that  he  says  one ;  and  that  he 
is  not  to  use  common  bread,  but  bread  prepared  for 
the  purpose — a  step  towards  wafers  and  unleavened 
bread,  neither  of  which  were  yet  known  in  the  Church. 
A  canon  of  the  Seventeenth  Council,  which  followed 
two  years  later,  shows  the  existence  of  a  singular 
superstition  respecting  the  Mass  which  was  so  preva- 
lent as  to  make  the  king  demand  legislation  on  the 
subject.  This  was  the  habit  of  applying  Masses  for 
the  dead  to  those  that  were  still  alive,  under  the 
hope  and  expectation  that  their  death  would  thus  be 
brought  about.  Those  who  paid  a  priest  to  say  such 
a  Mass,  and  the  priest  who  said  it,  are  condemned  to 
banishment  and  perpetual  excommunication.  The 
canons  of  this,  the  last  Council  of  Toledo  whose 
acts  are  preserved,  were  less  secular  and  more  eccle- 
siastical than  most  of  those  that  had  immediately 
preceded  it;  but  tliey  end  with  the  frightful  ordinance 
already  mentioned,  that  all  the  Jews  in  the  kingdom 
should  be  made  slaves  and  their  property  confiscated. 
The  additional  severity  of  this  law  was  caused  by  a 
real  or  pretended  discovery  of  a  plot  said  to  have 
been  entered  into  by  the  Spanish  Jews  with  the  Jews 
of  Africa  to  overthrow  Christianity. 

The  Seventeenth  ends  the  long  series  of  the  Coun- 
cils of  Toledo.  One  more  was  held  in  the  year  698, 
four  years   after  the  Seventeenth,  but  of  its  acts  no 


202         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

record   is    handed   down.      We   are   merely    told    by 
Isidore  Pacensis,  who  lived  about  the  year  750,  that 
such    a    Council   was    held,    after   Witiza    had    been 
associated  with  his  father,  Egica,  in  the  kingdom.    The 
character  of  these  Councils  is  remarkable.     The  first 
two   Councils  were  solely  ecclesiastical,   the    German 
tribes  not  having  entered  the  Peninsula  at  the  date 
of  the  first,   and  being  still  Arian  when    the  Second 
was  held.     The  Third,  held  in  Reccared's  reign,  A.D. 
589,    inaugurated   the   aUiance   between    Church   and 
State,  which  grew  from  an  alliance  into  a  union,  if 
not  a   fusion.     From   this  time  forward  the   Councils 
of    Toledo    became    at    once    Church    Councils    and 
national    Parliaments.      The    king   immediately    takes 
the  first  place,  and  by  degrees  it  becomes  the  recog- 
nised practice  that  he  should   present  himself  to  the 
Council  at  its  first  meeting,  deliver  to  it  a  Toinus,  or 
written  address,  respecting  the  matters  with  which  it 
was  to  deal,  and  confirm  its  acts  at  the  conclusion. 
Laymen  were  present  at  Reccared's  Council,  but  they 
were  there  for  a  special  purpose,  to  declare  their  con- 
version from  Arianism.     When  we  reach  the  Eighth 
Council,  sixty-four  years  later,  we  find  dignified  pres- 
byters and  representative  nobles  sitting  as  of  right  in 
the  National  Council.    The  same  order  is  followed  in  the 
Twelfth  and  all  succeeding  Councils.     From  Reccared's 
time  onwards  no  serious  effort  seems  to  have  been  made 
to  distinguish   between   the   secular  and  ecclesiastical 
elements.     Bishops  passed  laws  ordering  banishment, 
and  laymen  signed  canons  imposing  excommunication. 
No  jealousy  appears  to  have  been  felt  by  the  king  of 
the  Church's  power,  nor  by  the  Church  of  the  royal 


THE  PRIMACY  OF  TOLEDO.  203 

supremacy.  Occasionally  there  arose  a  king,  like 
Kindaswinth  or  Wamba,  who  favoured  the  army 
and  repressed  the  ecclesiastics,  but  as  rule  the  king, 
elected  by  the  bishops  and  nobles,  favoured  the 
Church  and  was  the  favourite  of  Churchmen.  More 
and  more  the  Government  took  the  form  of  a  theoc- 
racy, the  king's  conscience  being  governed  by  his 
prelates.  The  National  Church,  with  the  king  for 
its  supreme  governor,  was  a  self-governed  whole, 
that  did  not  look  beyond  itself  for  guidance  or  con- 
trol in  matters  ecclesiastical  any  more  than  in  matters 
secular.  From  no  statement,  or  canon,  or  allusion  in 
the  acts  of  all  the  seventeen  Councils  of  Toledo  could 
it  be  gathered  that  there  existed  on  the  other  side 
of  the  Pyrenees  a  prelate  whose  representatives  and 
adherents  in  after  ages  claimed  that  he  had  been 
all  the  while  the  divinely  appointed  monarch  of  the 
Church.  The  Councils  of  Toledo  did  not  know  him 
in  any  other  capacity  than  that  of  the  ItaHan  Primate, 
and  repudiated  with  scorn  his  one  attempt  to  set  them 
right  on  a  point  of  doctrine. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE  LAST  YEARS  OF  THE  GOTHIC  MONARCHY. 

Egica  associated  his  son  Witiza  with  himself  in  the 
kingdom  in  698,  and  died  in  701.  Witiza's  character 
is  painted  in  very  different  colours  by  the  earlier  and 
later  chroniclers.  According  to  the  earlier  historians, 
he  was  an  upright  king,  beloved  by  his  people,  and 
devoted  to  their  welfare.  The  later  accounts  repre- 
sent him  as  a  monster  of  iniquity  and  hcentiousness, 
who  allowed  bimself  a  plurality  of  wives,  and  en- 
couraged his  nobles  and  clergy  in  the  same  courses. 
He  is  charged  also  by  them  with  resistance  to  the 
Papal  authority,  and  with  having  thrown  down  the  forti- 
fications of  all  the  cities  in  Spain  with  three  exceptions. 
The  explanation  of  this  discrepancy  seems  to  be 
this — Spanish  writers  from  the  ninth  to  the  thirteenth 
century  felt  it  necessary  to  discover  some  cause  for  the 
fall  of  the  Gothic  kingdom  before  their  hated  masters 
the  Saracens.  They  could  imagine  no  adequate  cause 
for  such  a  catastrophe  except  the  vengeance  of  God 
on  the  sins  of  the  later  monarchs.  They  appear  to 
have  selected  Witiza  as  the  scapegoat,  and  attributed 
to  him  sins  and  crimes  of  which  no  one  was  conscious 
before  the  ninth  century,  some  of  which,  indeed,  are 
directly  denied  by  the  writers  nearest  to  him  in  age. 
Sebastian  of  Salamanca,  in  the  ninth  century,  can  state 


LAST  YEARS  OF  THE  GOTHIC  MONARCHY.    205 

that  he  allowed  no  Church  Councils  to  be  held. 
Isidore  Pacensis,  in  the  eighth  century,  has,  as  we 
have  seen,  related  that  a  Council  met  in  his  reign.  In 
all  probability  Witiza  maintained  the  traditional  in- 
dependence of  the  Church  and  nation  in  respect  to 
any  Ultramontane  claims,  and  he  may,  as  Sebastian 
reports,  have  been  opposed,  as  a  matter  of  piety  and 
policy,  to  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy.  On  this  founda- 
tion the  later  fables  seem  to  have  been  raised. 

While  Witiza  was  still  living  the  war  with  the 
Saracens  commenced.  It  appears  probable  that  his 
reign  lasted  to  the  beginning  of  the  year  711;  and 
in  710  Musa  despatched  Tarif  across  the  straits  on 
a  plundering  expedition  as  a  prelude  to  the  later  in- 
vasion. To  this  act  Musa  was  encouraged  by  Count 
Julian,  who  was  apparently  a  Spaniard  by  birth,  and 
governor  of  the  strip  of  territory  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Ceuta,  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  which  was  still  held 
by  the  Byzantines,  although  they  had  long  since  been 
deprived  of  their  former  possessions  in  Spain.  Julian 
appears  to  have  regarded  the  position  of  a  Byzantine 
commander,  and  therefore  an  hereditary  enemy  of 
the  Spanish  Goths,  as  justifying  him  in  introducing 
into  Spain  the  Saracen  hordes  in  spite  of  their  mis- 
belief, thinking  perhaps  to  deliver  his  own  territory 
from  their  presence.  The  invaders  were  but  five 
hundred  men,  who  made  a  plundering  raid  and  came 
back  with  their  easily  gathered  spoils.  Musa,  con- 
firmed in  his  intentions  by  their  report,  made  his 
preparations,  and  the  following  year  hurled  Tarik 
upon  the  opposite  coast  with  seven  thousand  troops, 
who  seized  Gibraltar  and  plundered  the  neighbouring 


2o6        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

country.  After  the  expedition  of  Tarif,  and  before 
the  invasion  of  Tarik,  it  would  seem  that  Witiza  died, 
and  Roderic,  by  the  help  of  the  army  and  the  con- 
nivance of  a  faction  among  the  nobles,  was  elected 
king.  The  Saracenic  movements  had  not  yet  caused 
apprehension,  and  it  would  appear  that  Roderic  turned 
his  attention  to  a  revolt  or  threatened  invasion  from 
the  north,  like  Harold  of  England,  when  destruc- 
tion was  coming  upon  him  from  the  southern  coast. 
On  hearing  of  Tarik's  occupation  of  Gibraltar,  he 
marched  to  attack  him  with  a  hundred  thousand  men. 
Musa  sent  five  thousand  men  to  the  support  of  Tarik. 
The  two  armies  met  on  the  banks  of  the  Guadalete 
on  July  19,  and  the  kingdom  of  the  Goths  was 
swept  away  in  one  day.  It  is  said  that  the  cause 
of  the  discomfiture  of  the  Christians  was  the  deser- 
tion of  Oppas,  brother  of  Witiza  and  Archbishop  of 
Seville,  with  all  the  adherents  of  the  late  king,  in  the 
heat  of  the  battle.  Roderic  was  killed,  and  the 
Saracens,  to  their  own  astonishment  and  the  amaze- 
ment of  the  world,  found  themselves  to  have  become 
by  one  blow  the  lords  of  Spain. 

All  the  world  knows  the  story  which  poets  and 
romancers  have  made  of  the  fall  of  the  Gothic  king- 
dom. According  to  it,  Julian  is  a  Spanish  noble 
holding  office  under  Roderic ;  the  king  insults  his 
daughter  in  a  way  that  demands  a  father's  vengeance, 
and  Julian,  forgetful  of  his  duty  to  his  country,  opens 
the  gate  to  the  enemies  of  his  race  and  faith.  If 
Tarif  s  expedition  took  place  before  Roderic's  acces- 
sion to  the  throne,  as  would  appear  to  be  the  case, 
the  story  cannot  be  true,  and   no  Spanish  chronicler 


LAST  YEARS  OF  THE  GOTHIC  MONARCHY.    207 

speaks  of  his  treachery  till  the  beginning  of  the 
twelfth  century,  yet  Mohammedan  writers  testify  to 
the  existence  of  Julian  at  Ceuta,  and  to  his  dealings 
with  the  Moors.  The  explanation  given  above  of 
JuHan's  relations  both  with  the  Goths  and  the  Saracens 
is  the  most  probable  that  can  be  given  until  further 
hght  is  shed  on  the  darkness  which  envelops  the  last 
years  of  the  Gothic  kingdom  in  Spain. 

We  pause  once  more,  at  the  end  of  the  second  and 
third  divisions  of  Spanish  history,  to  look  back  at  the 
state  of  the  Church  during  the  Gothic  rule;  which 
state  was  more  affected  by  the  conversion  of  the 
Gothic  sovereign  from  Arianism  in  the  year  589  than 
even  by  the  irruption  of  the  Vandals  and  Suevi 
in  409,  or  the  original  conquest  of  the  Peninsula 
by  the  Goths.  As  long  as  the  conquerors  were 
Arian,  whether  they  were  Suevi  or  Goths,  they  ex- 
hibited a  contemptuous  tolerance  towards  the  faith 
of  their  Roman  subjects,  and  allowed  them  their  own 
ecclesiastical  government,  just  as  they  permitted  them 
their  own  laws  for  regulating  their  civil  affairs.  The 
Goth  was  too  proud  and  too  indifferent  to  interfere, 
until,  in  process  of  time,  the  subjects  grew  up  to 
be  nearer  to  their  masters  in  social  position,  and  it 
was  found  that  the  inipermvi  in  imperio  which  they 
formed  was  politically  dangerous,  when  a  secret  un- 
derstanding was  liable  to  be  entered  into  between 
them  and  their  co-religionists,  the  Byzantine  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Roman  Empire  and  their  powerful 
neighbours  the  Franks.  When  this  peril  was  espied, 
and  when  individual  Goths  fell  off  one  by  one,  through 


2o8         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

the  instrumentality  of  proselytism,  from  the  Court  to 
the  country  party,  the  king  and  his  principal  nobles 
became  irritated,  and  the  result  was  an  occasional, 
if  contemptuous  and  short-lived,  persecution.  No 
change  was  made  by  the  Arian  conquerors  in  the 
constitution  or  regimen  of  the  Church.  It  still  con- 
sisted, as  in  the  times  previous  to  the  invasion,  of 
seventy  or  eighty  dioceses,  divided  into  six  provinces, 
one  of  which  was  situated  in  Gallia  Narbonnensis, 
outside  the  limits  of  the  Peninsula.  No  change  was 
yet  made  in  the  direction  of  estabHshing  a  primacy 
with  authority  or  jurisdiction  over  his  brother  metro- 
poHtans,  nor  was  it  made  till  about  thirty  years  before 
the  overthrow  of  the  kingdom.  The  six  metropolitans 
were  equal  in  power,  acknowledging  no  superior  out- 
side the  kingdom,  nor  any  within  its  borders  except 
the  National  Synod,  in  which  they  and  all  the  other 
bishops  of  Spain  were  represented. 

The  conversion  of  the  king  and  his  Court  made  an 
enormous  difference  to  the  Church.  Instead  of  a 
tolerant  and  contemptuous  civil  ruler,  who  scorned 
to  take  part  in  the  religious  affairs  of  an  alien  race 
Nsubjected  in  war,  there  appeared  at  once  on  the  scene 
a  monarch  willing  and  anxious  to  humble  himself 
before  his  bishops,  and  to  use  the  civil  arm  for  the  pro- 
tection of  a  Church  whose  faithful  and  obedient  son 
he  had  suddenly  become.  The  Church,  on  her  part, 
rejoicing  to  bask  in  the  warmth  of  the  royal  favour 
from  which  she  had  been  so  long  excluded,  and  grati- 
fied at  being  able  to  use  the  civil  power  for  her 
own  purposes,  was  willing  to  give  an  ecclesiastical 
supremacy  to  the  king,  such  as  circumstances  did  not 


LAST  YEARS  OF  THE  GOTHIC  MONARCHY.    209 

permit  any  other  National  Church  to  grant,  and  which 
was  elsewhere  regarded  as  an  encroachment  upon  the 
spiritual  power.  We  have  already  seen  the  important 
and  authoritative  position  held  by  the  king  in  relation 
to  the  Councils,  which  he  summoned  and  confirmed, 
and  the  subject  of  whose  deliberations  he  determined. 
We  have  seen  that  these  Councils  were  neither  Synods 
nor  ParHaments,  but  both  one  and  the  other,  and  that 
there  was  a  home-like  feeling  between  Church  and 
State  in  Spain,  as  there  was  in  England  before  the 
Conquest,  which  caused  people  to  be  content  so  that 
m.atters  ecclesiastical  and  civil  were  duly  performed, 
without  inquiring  by  whom  they  were  performed,  or 
drawing  a  hard-and-fast  line  between  the  sphere  of 
the  ecclesiastic  and  the  sphere  of  the  layman,  except, 
of  course,  in  respect  to  the  administration  of  God's 
Word  and  Sacraments. 

But  the  position  which  the  king  held  in  reference 
to  his  Council  was  far  from  being  the  only  point  which 
showed  the  intimate  relations  between  the  king  and 
the  Church,  and  the  extent  to  which  the  royal  supre- 
macy in  matters  ecclesiastical  prevailed.  The  learned 
Jesuit  Masdeu  sums  up  the  ecclesiastical  privileges 
of  Spanish  kings  under  four  heads.  They  had  the 
right  of  (i)  ordering  and  providing  for  the  good  and 
edification  of  the  faithful;  (2)  personally  constituting 
the  final  court  of  appeal  in  ecclesiastical  causes;  (3) 
nominating  to  bishoprics;  (4)  calling  and  confirming 
Church  Councils. 

To  prove  the  first  point  he  quotes  the  Council  of 
Merida,  which  thanks  God  for  the  wisdom  that  He 
had  given  to  Recceswinth  for  the  government  of  the 


210        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

Church;  shows  that  the  king  of  his  own  authority 
established  rogation  days  and  fast  days,  that  he  forbade 
the  pubhcation  of  books  written  against  Christianity, 
that  he  fined  all  men  who  did  not  send  their  Jewish 
slaves  to  be  catechised,  and  performed  other  acts  of 
the  same  kind.  On  the  second  point  he  declares  that 
^'  our  Gothic  kings,  as  Catholic  princes  and  protectors 
of  the  Church,  had  the  right  of  examining  ecclesiastical 
causes  in  the  last  instance,  that  they  might  be  ended 
by  his  authority  and  power,  according  to  the  rule  of 
the  sacred  canon."  He  shows  that  the  Ninth  Council 
of  Toledo  determined  that  in  respect  to  ecclesiastical 
property  an  appeal  lay  from  the  clergyman  to  his 
bishop,  from  the  bishop  to  the  metropolitan,  from  the 
metropolitan  to  the  king ;  and  that  this  right  of  appeal 
was  extended  to  other  subjects  by  the  Thirteenth  Council. 
He  gives  instances  of  bishops,  clergy,  and  monks  cited 
before  the  tribunal  of  the  king  for  ecclesiastical  causes. 
He  adds :  "  It  cannot  be  denied  that  this  practice  of 
the  Spanish  Church  is  contrary  to  that  of  other  Chris- 
tian Churches,  where  recourse  of  ecclesiastics  to  a 
secular  tribunal  was  generally  prohibited;  but  all 
canonists  know  and  confess  that  our  Church,  which 
is  the  purest  and  firmest  of  all  in  the  unity  of  Catholic 
doctrine,  had  many  peculiar  customs  in  discipline, 
which,  instead  of  meeting  with  any  reprobation,  deserve 
in  time  to  be  accepted  and  adopted  by  many  other 
Churches— ay,  and  some  of  them  by  the  Church  of 
Rome  and  the  whole  Christian  world.  ...  It  cannot 
be  denied  that  from  the  day  that  our  kings  of  Spain 
began  to  be  Catholic  our  Cluirch  granted  to  them 
a    supreme    tribunal     of    appeal    for   every   kind    of 


LAST  YEARS  OF  THE  GOTHIC  MONARCHY.    211 

ecclesiastical  cause,  in  order  that  the  royal  power 
might  execute  the  sacred  canons  and  protect  the 
Church."  1 

On  the  third  point,  Masdeu,  having  shown  that  the 
election  of  bishops  was  in  the  hands  of  the  clergy  and 
people  as  long  as  Spain  was  subject  to  the  Roman 
emperors,  and  as  long  as  the  Gothic  kings  were 
Arian,  proves  that  from  the  time  of  Reccared  the 
system  of  royal  nomination  became  gradually  sub- 
stituted for  it.  Sisibut  instructed  the  Metropolitan 
of  Tarragona  as  to  the  person  to  be  elected  Bishop 
of  Barcelona  in  620,  and  Braulio  in  a  letter  to  Isidore 
in  683  urges  the  latter  to  make  every  effort  to  induce 
the  king  to  nominate  a  good  bishop  for  Tarragona. 
In  the  Fourth  Council  of  Toledo  an  attempt  was  made, 
as  we  have  seen,  to  restore  the  old  system  of  elec- 
tion by  clergy  and  people  and  consecration  by  the 
metropolitan  and  suffragan  bishop,  but  in  spite  of 
the  canon  of  this  Council  the  new  system  prevailed 
over  the  old,  and  a  uniform  practice  was  adopted  of 
the  following  nature.  As  soon  as  a  vacancy  in  a  See 
occurred,  the  diocese  sent  word  to  the  king,  telling 
him  the  name  of  those  who  appeared  worthy  to 
occupy  the  See.  The  king  nominated  out  of  the 
list  so  sent,  and  the  metropolitan,  on  the  occasion 
of  :he  next  Provincial  Council,  accepted  the  royal 
nominee  and  consecrated  him.  It  was  the  prevalence 
of  this  system  which  caused  the  Church  so  readily 
to  acquiesce  in  the  primacy  conferred  on  the  Bishop 
of  Toledo  in  the  time  of  Julian.  By  the  important 
sixth  canon  of  the  Twelfth  Council  the  rights  of 
*  Vol.  xi.  p.  19. 


212         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

clergy,  metropolitans,  and  suftragan  bishops  were 
all  swept  away,  or  rather  were  concentrated  in  the 
hands  of  the  Bishop  of  Toledo ;  and  the  reason  why 
the  metropolitans  and  other  bishops  so  tamely  acqui- 
esced in  the  loss  of  their  privileges  was  probably 
that  they  persuaded  themselves  that  a  single  prelate, 
holding  the  Primatial  See,  would  have  more  influence 
in  advising  the  king  than  they  had  found  by  experi- 
ence that  the  bishops  of  the  various  Sees  had  been 
able  to  exercise.  Masdeu  defends  the  system  of 
royal  nominations,  in  the  character  of  a  patriotic 
Spanish  Churchman.  *'  Some  canonists,"  he  says, 
*'have  found  great  fault  with  the  Spanish  discipline 
for  not  following  the  Pontifical  decrees,  or  the  rules 
enacted  by  the  Councils  of  other  nations,  but  our 
Church  has  the  glory  of  setting  the  example  to  others 
rather  than  taking  example  from  them  in  many  points 
of  discipline;  nor,  in  fine,  is  it  a  matter  so  worthy 
of  censure  that  the  people  should  have  freely  yielded 
to  its  sovereign  the  right  of  nominating  its  bishops, 
which  it  held  from  the  time  of  the  apostles."  ^ 

Masdeu  approves  also  of  the  right  possessed  by 
the  king  of  summoning  and  confirming  Councils, 
showing  that  we  have  proof  of  its  having  been 
exerted  in  Councils  III.,  IV.,  V.,  VI.,  VII.,  VIII., 
X.,  XL,  XII.,  XIII.,  XIV.,  XVI.,  XVII.  of  Toledo; 
Councils  I.,  II.,  III.  of  Braga;  a  Council  of  Narbonnc 
in  589,  a  Council  of  Merida  in  666,  and  a  Council 
of  Zaragoza  in  691  ;  and  pointing  out  that  the 
sovereigns  thus  acted  with  the  full  approbation  of 
the  National  Councils,  and   with  no  opposition   from 

1  Vol.  xi.  p.  23. 


LAST  YEARS  OF  THE  GOTHIC  MONARCHY.    213 

a  single  bishop  in   Spain    or  even    from    the  Roman 
Pontiffs. 

Church  and    State   thus   acting   cordially  together, 
each   paying  deference  to   the  other,  and  each  yield- 
ing somewhat  to  the  other  even  in   its  own  sphere, 
without  jealousy  or  fear  on  either  side,  no  need  was 
felt  of  any  external  authority  to  which    to  have  re- 
course ;  consequently,  from  the  time  of  the  conversion 
of  the  Court,  the  Primate  of  Italy  had  as  little  to  do 
with  the  Church  of  Spain  as  the  Church  of  Italy  with 
the  Spanish  Primate.      Only  one    case  of  the  trans- 
mission of  the  pallium  is  found,  and  that  was  a  mere 
present  of  Gregory  I.  to  his  old  friend  Leander  of  a 
vestment  commonly  used  by  metropolitans  in  services 
of  more  than  ordinary  solemnity,  and  bearing  at  that 
time  no  significance.     Only  one  case  is  found  of  the 
Pope's   acting   upon    the    permission  granted    by   the 
Council  of  Sardica  and   sending  a  judge  to  examine 
into  and  decide  a  quarrel    that   had   arisen    between 
two  bishops;  but  that  case  arose  in  a  part  of  Spain 
which  was  still   subject   to  the   Roman  Empire,   and 
Gregory  I.,  in  sending  John  the  Defensor,  was  act- 
ing   in    accordance    with    the    laws    of  Gratian    and 
Valentinian.     The  whole  affair  was  outside  the  Gothic 
kingdom.      Three   instances   are   found   of  the   Pope 
giving  the  title  of  his  ''Vicar"  to  Spanish   bishops, 
but  all  three  of  these  were  previous  to  the  conversion 
of  Reccared,  and  whatever  the  title  may  have  meant  in 
the  Pope's  estimation  and  desire,  it  gave  no  authority 
in  Spain.     The  three  Papal  vicars  in  Spain  were  men 
of  no  importance  or  power — Zeno  and  Sallust,  Bishops 
of  Seville,  at  the  end  of  the  fourth  and  the  beginning 


214         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

of  the  fifth  century,  and  John,  Bishop  of  Elche,  who 
held  the  title  at  the  same  time  as  Sallust.  Throughout 
the  whole  time  no  recourse  was  had  to  Rome  for 
obtaining  dispensations  in  respect  to  the  observance  of 
the  canons.  Nine  Popes  are  said  (truly  or  falsely)  to  have 
written  letters  to  Spaniards  during  this  period — Leo  I. 
and  Hilarius,  A.D.  447  and  465 ;  SimpHcius  and  Felix  III., 
A.D.  480  and  481;  Hormisdas  and  VigiHus,  A.D.  517 
and  538;  Gregory  I.,  A.D.  589;  Leo  IL  and  Benedict 
IL,  A.D.  684.  The  first  six  of  these  letters  were 
written  before  the  Conversion  Council  was  held — 
when,  therefore,  the  Imperial  laws  of  Gratian  and 
Valentinian  continued  to  regulate  the  relations  of  the 
bishop  of  the  Imperial  city  with  the  prelates  of  a 
country  still  regarded  as  belonging  to  the  Empire  in 
matters  ecclesiastical.  Gregory's  epistles  were  friendly 
ietters  to  Leander,  Reccared,  and  Duke  Claudius  (be- 
sides those  written  to  John  the  Defensor,  who  was  not 
within  the  Gothic  kingdom).  The  letters  of  Leo  II. 
and  Benedict  II.  were  requests  to  the  Spanish  Church 
to  acknowledge  the  decrees  of  the  Sixth  (Ecumenical 
Council  after  examination  of  their  purport,  and  they 
led  to  a  sharp  repudiation  of  Roman  interference  with 
the  Toledan  estimate  of  orthodoxy.  Masdeu  sums 
up  the  subject  as  follows :  ''  In  respect  to  the  Papal 
jurisdiction  in  Spain  there  is  one  thing  very  worthy 
of  notice,  that  every  recourse,  appeal,  or  vicariate  in 
our  nation  belongs  to  the  times  of  the  Arian  kings. 
In  the  long  space  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  years,  when 
the  Catholic  religion  was  on  the  throne,  from  the 
conversion  of  the  Suevi  to  the  entrance  of  the  Arabs, 
there  is  no  record  of  any  jurisdiction  exerted  by  the 


LAST  YEARS  OF  THE  GOTHIC  MONARCHY.    215 

Pontiffs  with  the  exception  of  that  of  John  the  Defensor, 
and  that  took  place  in  the  territories  of  the  Eastern 
Emperor,  not  in  the  dominions  of  our  kings.  Two 
reasons  alone  can  be  assigned  for  this  important  fact — 
(i)  the  greater  facility  of  summoning  National  Councils 
after  the  Court  had  become  CathoHc,  and  thus  ter- 
minating causes  of  moment;  (2)  the  practice  which 
arose  of  referring  ecclesiastical  causes  in  the  last 
instance  to  the  tribunal  of  the  king  as  the  protector 
of  the  Church.  The  result  of  this  system  (which  it 
is  not  for  me  either  to  blame  or  to  praise)  was  cer- 
tainly good;  the  greatest  enemies  confess  that  the 
Church  of  Spain  was  most  saintly  and  an  example 
to  the  world  at  the  time  that  it  was  governed  only  by 
its  kings  and  Councils  without  any  foreign  tribunals."  ^ 
While  Spain  had  its  National  Church,  independently 
governed,  except  so  far  as  it  paid  deference  to  the 
(Ecumenical  Councils  at  which  it  had  been  represented 
or  whose  decrees  it  had  accepted, -  she  also  had  her 
own  code  of  laws  different  from  that  of  the  rest  of 
the  world.  The  Visigothic  code  was  first  composed, 
or  rather  reduced  to  shape,  by  Euric  in  480  for  his 
own  Goths.  Another  code,  drawn  in  part  from  that 
of  Theodosius,  was  prepared  by  his  son  Alaric  at 
the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century  for  the  conquered 
provincials.  These  two  codes  proceeded  side  by  side, 
corrected  and  enlarged  by  Leovigild,  Kindaswinth, 
Recceswinth,  Wamba,  and  Erwig,  until,  in  the  reign 

^  Hhtoria  Critica,  vol.  xi.  p.  164. 

^  The  Spanish  Church  did  not  admit  (though  it  did  not  deny)  the 
authority  of  the  Fifth  Council  (Constantinople  II,),  because  she  had 
not  been  represented  at  it,  nor  were  its  decrees  submitted  to  her  for 
consideration. 


2i6        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

of  the  later  kings,  the  native  or  Roman  population 
was  admitted  to  the  privilege  of  living  under  the 
purely  Gothic  code.  The  Visigoths  enjoy  the  honour 
of  having  been  the  first  to  reduce  to  writing  and  to 
cast  into  the  form  of  a  code  the  unwritten  rules  of 
conduct  which  the  German  tribes  brought  with  them 
in  their  invasions.  The  magnificent  kingdom  ruled 
by  Euric  at  Toulouse  must  have  forced  upon  him 
the  necessity  of  a  written  code  of  laws,  and  the  sub- 
jection of  Spain  must  have  made  that  necessity  still 
more  imperative. 

The  Spanish  Church  had  also  its  own  liturgy,  after- 
wards called  the  Mozarabic,  of  which  there  will  be 
occasion  hereafter  to  speak  more  at  length. 

In  respect  to  matters  of  doctrine  and  of  practices 
resulting  from  doctrine,  the  Spanish  Church  under- 
went the  same  deterioration  during  the  fifth,  sixth, 
and  seventh  centuries  as  the  rest  of  the  Western 
Church,  but  to  no  greater  extent  than  other  Churches. 
Those  three  centuries  are  noticeable  as  forming  the 
commencement  of  the  decline  into  mediaevalism  and 
modern  Vaticanism.  After  S.  Augustine  had  died  no 
great  Western  theologian  arose,  and  the  Church  had 
no  great  teachers  to  call  it  back  to  the  original  standards 
from  which  it  insensibly  and  unconsciously  declined. 
As  yet,  however,  we  have  but  the  commencement  of 
the  downward  grade.  Of  the  twelve  articles  by  which 
the  Creed  of  Pope  Pius  IV.  distinguishes  Roman  from 
Catholic  doctrine,  none  had  as  yet  reached  maturity; 
some  had  not  yet  been  heard  of.  Transubstantiation 
and  the  propitiatory  sacrifice  of  the  Mass,  first  heard 
of  in    the    eleventh    century,   were    as    yet   unknown, 


LAST  YEARS  OF  THE  GOTHIC  MONARCHY.    217 

although  the  simplicity  of  the  original  liturgical  forms 
had  now  become  to  some  extent  perplexed.  No  indi- 
cation of  the  fifteenth  century  dogma  of  the  reception 
of  Christ  under  one  kind  is  found  except  that  a  few 
priests  were  condemned  for  mixing  the  elements  to- 
gether in  the  administration  of  the  Holy  Communion — 
a  practice  which  afterwards  was  used  as  a  step  towards 
the  aboHtion  of  the  cup.  So  far  was  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury dogma  of  there  being  neither  more  nor  less  than 
seven  sacraments  from  being  known  that  no  sign  can 
be  found  of  the  existence  of  Extreme  Unction. 

The  first  step  towards  the  belief  in  a  Purgatory  had 
been  made  by  Gregory  I.,  who  threw  out  the  idea  that 
the  soul  might  undergo  some  cleansing  process  after 
death,  and  this  opinion  might  have  been  shared  by 
his  friend  Leander  and  by  Isidore.  The  appearance 
of  the  doctrine  of  Indulgences  had  to  wait  till  the 
thirteenth  century.  We  have  seen  that  the  Spanish 
Church  would  have  nothing  to  say  to  any  supremacy 
on  the  part  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome;  nor  have  we 
any  evidence  of  its  elevating  tradition  to  a  level  with 
Holy  Scripture  as  a  distinct  source  of  truth.  The 
mediaeval  doctrine  towards  which  it  had  made  the 
greatest  advance  was  the  Invocation  of  Saints,  origi- 
nating in  the  panegyrical  orations  over  martyrs  used 
as  a  means  of  stirring  the  feelings  of  the  auditors. 
If  the  works  attributed  to  Ildefonso  are  really  his, 
the  adoration  of  S.  Mary  had  by  his  time  made  con- 
siderable progress.  Connected  with  the  invocation 
of  saints  was  the  veneration  of  relics  and  the  worship 
of  images,  in  respect  of  both  of  which  the  practice 
of  the  members    of   the    Church    had   become   tinged 


2i8        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

with  superstition.  Asceticism  had  from  the  beginning 
a  strong  hold  on  the  Spanish  Church,  and  had  already 
produced  enormous  mischiefs,  as  exhibited  by  the  im- 
position of  a  forced  celibacy  causing  those  terrible 
evils  against  which  Council  after  Council  in  vain 
issued  its  canons  with  increasing  severity.  What 
could  be  the  state  of  a  Church  when  the  clergy  were 
not  trusted  by  their  superiors  to  lead  moral  lives 
if  they  lived  in  the  same  house  with  a  maidservant, 
a  cousin,  a  niece,  an  aunt,  or  even  a  sister;^  and 
when  authority  was  given  to  the  Justices  of  the  Peace 
to  seize  any  woman  whom  they  found  in  a  clergyman's 
house  and  shut  her  up  as  a  sei^vitor  in  a  convent, 
"  that  this  vice,  which  the  power  of  the  bishops  is 
incapable  of  putting  a  stop  to,  may  be  circumscribed 
by  the  force  of  the  law "  ?  ^  Moreover,  the  ascetic 
principle  led  to  the  unspiritual  notion  that  by  personal 
suffering  and  action  merit  might  be  laid  up,  and  thus 
that  salvation  was  rather  a  prize  to  be  earned  by  man 
than  a  free  gift  bestowed  on  man  for  Christ's  sake, 
confusing,  if  not  contradicting,  the  true  doctrine  of 
justification.  Some  evil  tendencies  then  were  on  their 
way  to  their  consummation  ;  the  purity  of  the  Primitive 
Church  had  passed  away ;  but  mediaeval  doctrine  had 
not  yet  established  itself. 

^  Cone.  Brae.  TIL,  Canon  5,  a.d.  675. 
2  Cone.  Ilispal.  I.,  Canon  3,  a.d.  590. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

MOORISH  SPAIN. 

Twenty  years  before  the  conversion  of  the  Gothic 
kings  from  Arianism  Mohammed  was  born.  Twenty 
years  after  that  date,  in  the  year  609,  he  began  his 
mission.  The  two  great  powers  which  at  that  time 
divided  the  world  between  them  were  the  Empires 
of  Rome  and  Persia.  Since  the  year  476  the  Western 
portion  of  the  Empire  had  been  reunited  to  the 
Eastern,  and  the  Roman  Empire,  under  Justinian, 
ruled  over  the  whole  of  the  West  with  the  exception 
of  Britain,  Gaul,  and  Spain,  which  were  occupied  by 
the  Northern  nations.  Syria,  Egypt,  Asia  Minor, 
and  part  of  Armenia  belonged  also  to  the  Imperial 
dominions;  while  the  farther  East  was,  speaking 
roughly,  subjected  to  Persia.  When  Mohammed  came 
to  man's  estate,  about  the  time  of  Reccared's  Council, 
he  found  the  Arabian  Peninsula,  which  belonged  to 
neither  of  these  great  Empires,  filled  with  indepen- 
dent tribes,  who  had  degenerated  from  the  Mono- 
theism which  once  prevailed  in  Arabia,  and  while 
acknowledging  one  supreme  God,  recognised  a  num- 
ber of  inferior  divine  beings,  to  whom  they  paid 
religious  worship  as  well  as  to  Allah.  The  reli- 
gion of  these  tribes  has   the  general  name  of  Sabi- 

anism.      Among   them    there   was   a    large  sprinkling 

2*19 


220        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

both  of  Jews  and  Christians,  but  the  Christian  reh- 
gion  appears  to  have  put  on  a  very  corrupt  form  in 
the  Arabian  Peninsula,  the  Collyridian  heresy,  which 
worshipped  the  Virgin  Mary  and  made  to  her  sacrificial 
offerings  of  cakes,  being  very  prevalent,  together  with 
a  veneration  of  saints  which  might  easily  be  con- 
founded with  the  Sabian  practice  of  recognising  one 
chief  God  and  inferior  objects  of  worship.  Magianism 
also  existed,  but  had  not  many  votaries.  The  prevail- 
ing religion  was  a  polytheistic  idolatry. 

Mohammed's  object,  at  the  beginning  of  his  career, 
was  to  restore  Monotheism,  and  to  overthrow  the 
idolatry  by  which  he  was  surrounded.  With  Magi- 
anism he  appears  to  have  had  no  sympathies.  Judaism 
was,  in  his  estimation,  a  true  religion,  but  it  was  the 
religion  of  a  nation  now  passed  away,  and  it  required 
development  and  addition  to  be  made  suitable  for 
the  world  as  it  now  was.  Christianity  was  not  fairly 
represented  to  him ;  he  could  hardly  recognise  in  the 
form  of  Christianity  with  which  he  was  familiar  a 
republication  of  the  great  truth  of  the  unity  of  God 
and  of  the  degrading  character  of  idolatry.  He  paid 
the  highest  respect  to  the  teaching  and  to  the  life 
of  Jesus  Christ,  but  could  not  recognise  in  the  Chris- 
tianity which  he  saw  before  him  that  development 
of  Judaism  by  which  the  world  was  to  be  saved  and 
man  elevated.  Something  more  was  wanted  to  con- 
summate and  perfect  the  religion  that  had  been 
preached  by  Abraham,  Moses,  and  Jesus.  At  first 
Mohammed  seems  to  have  been  nothing  else  than 
a  preacher  of  a  religion  which  he  believed  true. 
After  years  of   persecution  he  found    himself  at   the 


MOORISH  SPAIN.  221 

head  of  an  enthusiastic  following,  and  now  he  de- 
clared, and  perhaps  believed,  himself  to  be  a  prophet 
of  God,  as  Abraham,  Moses,  and  Jesus  had  been. 
He  destroyed  the  three  hundred  and  sixty  idols  that 
stood  in  the  temple  of  Mecca,  and  having  established 
a  behef  in  Monotheism  and  his  own  apostleship  in 
the  Arabian  Peninsula,  and  having  convinced  himself 
that  in  so  doing  he  was  performing  the  will  of  God, 
he  resolved  to  make  the  whole  world  a  sharer  in  the 
truth  which  he  had  been  instrumental  in  making  his 
own  countrymen  embrace.  Mohammed  died  in  632, 
and  was  succeeded  by  Abu-bekr,  Omar,  0th man,  and 
AH.  Abu-bekr  at  once  threw  himsrlf  upon  the  two 
great  Empires  which  were  dividing  the  world  between 
them,  and  wrested  Syria  from  Rome  and  conquered 
Persia.  The  Caliph  Omar  added  Egypt  to  the  Arabian 
Empire,  and  under  Othman,  in  647,  the  Moslems 
pushed  their  victorious  arms  along  the  northern  coast 
of  Africa  as  far  as  Carthage.  Thirty  years  later,  in 
the  reign  of  Moawia,  Okba  led  a  victorious  army 
to  Tunis,  Carthage,  Ceuta,  Tangier,  and  the  Atlantic 
Ocean;  but  the  Arabian  rule  was  not  yet  consoli- 
dated in  this  district.  North  Africa  was  inhabited 
partly  by  Romans,  partly  by  the  native  Berber  or 
Moorish  tribes.  Neither  -^of  them  were  antagonists 
to  be  despised;  and  it  was  not  till  709  that  the  pro- 
vince was  fully  subjected  to  the  rule  of  the  caliphs. 
Ceuta,  and  a  strip  of  territory  near  it,  belonged  to 
the  emperor;  and  his  officer,  the  Spaniard  Julian, 
bravely  resisted  the  attacks  of  the  Arabians.  The 
following  year,  whether  from  a  fear  of  being  unable 
to  resist   the  continued    onsets    of  the  Arabs    unless 


222        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

their  attention  was  diverted  elsewhere,  or  from  a  feel- 
ing of  partisanship  with  the  fallen  house  of  Witiza, 
some  scions  of  which  are  said  to  have  taken  refuge 
at  Ceuta,  Julian  made  peace  with  the  Saracens  and 
promised  them  to  facihtate  an  invasion  of  Spain. 
Musa,  the  Moslem  governor  of  Africa,  hesitated  to 
trust  Julian,  and  sent  for  instructions  to  the  caliph, 
Walid  I.  The  caliph  ordered  him  to  take  advantage 
of  the  offered  opening,  but  to  act  with  caution.  Musa 
despatched  a  small  body  of  invaders,  who  crossed 
the  strait  under  the  command  of  Tarif  in  710,  and 
returned  with  plunder  and  with  news  which  encour- 
aged him  to  undertake  an  expedition  on  a  greater 
scale.  Tarik  crossed  the  next  year,  and  having  given 
his  name  to  Gibraltar  (Gebal-tarik),  marched  forward 
and  fought  the  battle  of  Guadalete  near  the  site  of 
Xeres. 

Roderic  having  been  slain  in  the  battle,  no  Gothic 
noble  was  found  capable  of  gathering  round  himself 
the  remains  of  the  defeated  army  and  retrieving  the 
fortunes  of  the  war.  The  party  of  Witiza  had  joined 
the  invaders,  not  expecting  them  to  remain  as  per- 
manent possessors  of  the  country.  Of  Roderic's 
faction  no  leader  appeared  of  higher  merit  than  Theo- 
domir,  who  had  previously  been  governor  of  the  South 
of  Spain,  and  was  now  capable  of  doing  no  more 
than  retreating  into  Murcia,  and  there  making  a  stand 
with  the  few  soldiers  who  accompanied  him.  The 
sudden  collapse  of  the  Gothic  kingdom,  as  the  result 
of  one  defeat  on  the  field  of  battle,  shows  how  ener- 
vated and  degenerate  the  Gothic  conquerors  had 
become  since  their  fusion  with  the  old  inliabitants  of 


MOORISH  SPAIN.  223 

the  Peninsula.  Even  yet,  however,  it  would  seem 
that  they  would  not  have^  succumbed  so  tamely  had 
it  not  been  for  the  internal  quarrels  by  which  the 
Court  was  distracted,  and  the  bitter  hostility  which  a 
hundred  and  forty  years  of  persecution  had  implanted 
in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  Jews.  The  last  canon 
of  the  last  Council  of  Toledo,  which  was  a  civil  par- 
liament as  well  as  an  ecclesiastical  synod,  had  ordered 
that  all  Jews  in  the  country  should  be  made  slaves 
and  their  children  taken  from  them.  The  Jewish 
population  bowed  for  the  moment  before  the  storm, 
but  as  soon  as  the  Saracen  invaders  appeared  they 
threw  themselves  heart  and  soul  on  their  side,  knowing 
that  they  could  not  be  worse  off  under  any  masters, 
and  aware  that  elsewhere  the  Moslems  had  demanded, 
and  would  probably  here  demand,  no  more  than 
tribute  from  those  that  were  not  their  co-religionists. 
Another  vast  body  of  men  who  were  indifferent,  if 
not  favourable,  to  the  success  of  the  invaders  was  the 
slaves.  From  the  canons  of  the  later  Councils  of 
Toledo  we  find  that  some  of  these  slaves  had  been 
allowed  to  continue  in  heathendom,  so  that  their 
religious  sympathies  were  not  with  their  masters,  and 
socially  their  estate  could  not  be  more  degraded. 
Now  they  saw  open  to  them  a  means  of  escaping 
from  their  Christian  masters  b}^  declaring  themselves 
converts  to  Islam.  No  serious  resistance  was  made 
to  Tarik.  After  the  battle  of  Guadalete,  disregarding 
the  commands  of  Musa,  he  divided  his  forces  into 
three  bodies,  and  directed  them  against  Cordova, 
Malaga,  Elvira,  and  Toledo,  of  all  of  which  he  made 
himself  master.     The  following  year  Musa  landed  with 


224         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

an  additional  force,  anxious  to  reap  the  fruits  of  his 
lieutenant's  victories,  and  reduced  Seville,  Merida,  and 
Zaragoza.  In  three  years'  time  the  whole  of  Spain 
had  become  subject  to  the  caliph,  with  the  exception 
of  the  small  district  in  Murcia  where  Theodomir  main- 
tained himself,  and  the  mountains  of  the  Asturias, 
into  the  fastnesses  of  which  the  Christians  withdrew 
who  had  neither  paid  tribute  nor  would  give  up  their 
faith.  The  province  of  Narbonne,  in  France,  which 
had  always  belonged  to  the  Gothic  kingdom  of  Spain, 
was  also  subjugated,  and  it  was  only  by  the  great 
battle  of  Tours  in  732  that  Eudes,  Duke  of  Aquitania, 
and  Charles  Martel  saved  France  and  Europe  from 
undergoing  the  fate  of  Spain.  The  Moslems  recog- 
nised the  crushing  character  of  the  defeat  there  re- 
ceived, and  confined  themselves  thenceforward  to  Spain 
and  that  part  of  France,  called  Septimania  or  Nar- 
bonnensis,  which  throughout  the  Gothic  regime  had 
been  Spanish,  from  whence  also  they  were  before 
long  dislodged. 

The  Mohammedans  in  Spain  found  it  far  easier  to 
conquer  the  Spaniards  and  subject  the  country  than 
to  agree  among  themselves  as  to  the  division  of  the 
spoils.  Though  united  in  faith,  they  were  made  up 
of  different  nationalities,  jealous  of  each  other,  and 
consolidated  only  by  a  common  obedience  to  the 
caliph,  whose  residence  was  now  in  the  distant  city 
of  Damascus.  The  majority  of  those  who  had  de- 
feated Roderic  were  not  Arabs  or  Saracens,  but  Ber- 
bers or  Moors.'  The  Berbers  had  resisted  the  Arab 
invasion  for  fifty  years,  and  when  at  length  defeated, 
had  enrolled    themselves   under  the  banners  of  their 


MOORISH  SPAIN.  225 

conquerors,  but  they  still  retained  their  independent 
organisation.  Tarik  himself  was  a  Berber,  while 
Musa  was  an  Arab,  and  this  difference  of  race 
augmented  the  bitter  jealousy  that  existed  between 
them.  Musa  and  the  other  Arab  governors  had 
taken  care  that  the  men  of  Arab  blood  should  have 
the  fairest  parts  of  Andalusia,  while  the  Berbers  were 
relegated  to  the  north,  and  were  made  to  serve  as  a 
bulwark  against  the  still  unconquered  Christians,  and 
the  lands  that  they  occupied  were  very  inferior  to 
the  smiling  plains  of  the  south.  Thirty  years  after 
the  invasion  of  Spain  the  Berbers  of  Africa  rose  and 
shook  off  the  Arab  yoke,  and  the  troops  sent  from 
Syria  to  reduce  them  were  themselves  besieged  in 
Ceuta.  The  Berbers  of  Spain  resolved  to  take  part 
with  their  African  brethren,  and  rebelled  against  the 
emir  of  Andalusia.  The  emir  sent  for  the  Syrian 
troops  at  Ceuta  to  come  to  his  help,  and  with  their 
aid  he  defeated  and  massacred  the  Berbers.  But  as 
soon  as  this  had  been  effected,  the  new-comers  them- 
selves rose  against  the  emir  and  murdered  him.  On 
this  followed  anarchy  and  internecine  warfare,  a  state 
of  things  that  was  palliated,  but  not  fully  remedied, 
by  the  caliph  ordering  the  Egyptians,  the  Syrians, 
the  Arabs,  and  the  Berbers  to  settle  in  different  parts 
of  the  Peninsula.  The  first  half-century  after  the 
invasion  was  spent  by  the  Mohammedans  in  civil  war 
and  internal  contests. 

In  the  person  of  Moawia,  the  fifth  in  succession 
from  Mohammed,  the  Ommiad  caliphs  had  established 
themselves  at  Damascus,  and  they  reigned  for  a 
hundred   years,  until   overthrown    by   the    Abbasside 


226        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

dynasty  in  750.  One  member  of  the  Ommiad  family 
escaped  the  general  massacre  of  its  adherents  by  the 
Abbassides,  and  fled  first  to  Africa  and  then  to  Spain, 
where  he  arrived  in  755.  He  was  received  with  open 
arms  by  the  contending  factions,  and  having  defeated 
the  Arab  governor  of  Andalusia,  established  in  Cor- 
dova the  famous  dynasty  of  the  Ommiad  Caliphs  of 
Spain.  The  Empire  thus  established  by  Abderahman 
flourished  in  great  magnificence  and  splendour  for 
nearly  three  hundred  years  down  to  A.D.  1031.  Then 
followed  two  centuries  of  war  and  rivalry  between  the 
various  Mohammedan  cities  and  kingdoms,  succeeded 
by  two  more  centuries  and  a  half  of  war,  ending  with 
the  conquest  of  Granada  by  Ferdinand  and  Isabel 
in  1492. 

During  the  dissensions  of  their  conquerors  the  few 
native  Christians  who  preferred  the  sword  to  Islam 
or  tribute  grew  in  numbers  and  confidence.  Theo- 
domir,  indeed,  after  one  spasmodic  effort,  succumbed. 
He  and  his  Murcian  Christians  became  tributary  to 
the  emir,  and  before  long  were  absorbed  in  the  Empire 
of  the  caHph;  but  men  of  a  different  stamp  were 
growing  up  behind  the  mountains  of  the  Asturias, 
on  the  shores  of  the  Bay  of  Biscay.  To  the  Cave  of 
Covadonga,  which  no  Moorish  step  ever  violated, 
there  gathered  such  as  preferred  the  protection  of 
their  swords  to  submission  to  the  unbelievers.  At 
one  time,  it  is  stated  by  an  Arabian  authority,  they 
consisted  of  only  forty  souls  all  told — thirty  men 
and  ten  women — who  are  described  by  him  as  getting 
their  food  from  the  honey  which  they  found  in  the 
rocks.     The  Arab  conquerors,  revelling  in  the  sunny 


MOORISH  SPAIN.  227 

plains  of  ^^Andaluz,"   thought    that    they   might  well 
leave  those  few  brigands  to  perish,  nor  did  they  ever 
push  the  confines  of  the  Moorish  state  quite  up  to  the 
shores  of  the  Bay  of  Biscay  in    the  neighbourhood 
of  Oviedo.     The  head  of  the  hardy  body  of  refugees 
who  made  their  home  in  the  Cave  of  Covadonga  was 
Pelagius  or  Pelayo,  said  to  have  belonged  to  the  blood 
of  the  old  Gothic  kings.      Year  by  year  accessions 
were  made  to  his  little  company,  till  in  718  they  had 
become  sufficiently  numerous   to  proclaim   him  king. 
The  Moors  made  one  attempt,  it  is  said,  to  hunt  them 
out  of  the  defiles  of  Covadonga,  but  the  attempt  ended 
in  a  disastrous  slaughter,  in  which  the  Moorish  chief- 
tain was  slain,  and  the  renegade  Oppas,  son  of  Witiza 
and  Archbishop  of  Seville,  was  taken  and  put  to  death.^ 
In  751,  Alonzo  of  Cantabria,  the  district  lying  next 
to  the  Asturias,  and,  like  the  Asturias,  never  subjected 
to  the  invaders,  married  the  daughter  of  Pelayo,  and 
the  Christians  were  now  strong  enough  to  push  their 
arms  as  far  southwards  as  the  Sierra  de  Guadarrama, 
recovering  Braga,  Oporto,  Astorga,  Leon,  Salamanca, 
and    other   towns,   and    wresting   from    the   invaders 
the  provinces  of  Galicia,  the  Asturias,  Leon,  and  Old 
Castile. 

About  the  same  time  that  Pelayo  was  gathering  his 
outlaws  about  him  at  Covadonga,  the  mountaineers, 
who  lay  farther  eastwards,  where  the  Pyrenees  run 
down  to  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  formed  another  centre 
of  independence,  under  Garcia  Ximenes,  which  became 
the  origin  of  the  kingdom  of  Navarre.     At  a  somewhat 

^  "Ibique  statim  Oppa  capto,  Alcaman  cum  cxxiiii.  miilibus  Caldae- 
orum  interfectus  est." — Monachi  Siknsis  Chronicon. 


2  28        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

later  date  the  Christians,  still  eastwards  of  Navarre 
lying  under  the  slopes  of  the  Pyrenees,  leagued  to- 
gether, and  created  what  became  the  kingdom  of 
Aragon.  Such  was  the  origin  of  the  Christian  king- 
doms of  Leon,  Castile,  Navarre,  and  Aragon,  which 
were  destined  in  the  course  of  centuries  to  win  back 
the  whole  of  Spain  to  the  Cross. 

These  little  Christian  bodies  were  composed  of  native 
Spaniards.  From  the  other  side  of  the  Pyrenees, 
France  contributed  somewhat  to  the  discomfiture  of 
the  Moors  in  Spain,  besides  driving  them  out  of  the 
French  province  of  Narbonne,  which  had  so  long 
been  counted  as  Spanish  territory.  In  the  year  yyy 
Charlemagne,  invited  by  some  discontented  Moslems 
as  well  as  by  Christians,  marched  across  the  Pyrenees, 
reduced  many  towns,  and  laid  siege  to  Zaragoza. 
Before  he  had  succeeded  in  reducing  the  province  to 
submission  the  needs  of  his  vast  Empire  recalled  him 
to  the  North.  He  led  his  main  army  safely  back 
across  the  mountains,  but  while  the  rear  was  entangled 
in  the  defiles  of  Roncesvalles  it  was  attacked  by  the 
wild  inhabitants  of  the  Pyrenees  and  cut  to  pieces, 
together  with  its  leader,  the  famous  Roland.  Charle- 
magne's authority  was  recognised  in  Catalonia,  and 
his  rule  was  further  confirmed  by  an  invasion  led 
by  his  son  Louis  the  Pious  during  his  father's  lifetime, 
who  took  the  city  of  Barcelona  after  a  siege  of  two 
years,  and  made  himself  master  of  Tortosa  and  other 
towns.  The  most  important  result  of  this  invasion 
was  the  establishment  of  a  line  of  Christian  counts  at 
Barcelona,  who  after  a  time  made  themselves  masters 
of  Catalonia,  and  lield  also  under  their  rule  the  pro- 


MOORISH  SPAIN.  229 

vince  of  Narbonne,  which  had  so  long  been  connected 
with  Spain.  The  Moslem  kingdom  was  thus  encircled 
from  Lisbon  (to  which  the  Christian  forays  soon  ex- 
tended) to  Corunna,  and  from  thence  along  the  whole 
northern  coast  and  boundary  of  the  Peninsula,  from 
the  extreme  point  of  the  Bay  of  Biscay  to  the  Pyrenees, 
and  thence  to  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  with  Christian 
confederations,  not  yet  touching  one  another,  but  which 
were  to  grow  and  form  themselves  into  the  kingdoms 
of  Portugal,  Leon,  Castile,  Navarre,  and  Aragon,  as 
well  as  the  quasi-kingdom  of  Catalonia. 

The  story  of  the  Spanish  nation  recommences  as 
from  a  new  source  in  the  mountains  of  the  Asturias 
and  Cantabria,  whence  the  Christians  rolled  down  and 
spread  like  a  stream  of  ever-increasing  volume,  till 
they  recovered  from  Moslem  sway  first  the  northern 
and  western  parts  of  the  Peninsula,  and  at  length  the 
whole  of  their  ancient  heritage.  The  first  five  kings, 
if  kings  they  can  be  called  who  were  no  more  than 
leaders  pf  a  few  resolute  mountaineers,  Pelayo,  Favila, 
Alonzo,  Fruela,  and  Orelio,  made  the  Cave  of  Cova- 
donga,  in  the  valley  of  Cangas,  their  headquarters. 
The  next  three,  Silon,  Mauregato,  and  Bermudo,  took 
up  their  residence  in  the  town  of  Pravia.  Alonzo  IL 
transferred  the  seat  of  government  to  Oviedo,  whence 
it  was  subsequently  removed  to  Leon,  where  it  re- 
mained, except  for  a  moment,  until  Toledo,  the  ancient 
seat  of  the  Gothic  monarchy,  was  recovered  in  the  year 
1085. 

Those  who  submitted  to  the  conquerors  became 
known  by  the  name  of  Mozarabs.  - 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE  MIGETIAN  AND  ADOPTIONIST  HERESIES. 

The  whole  of  the  eighth  century  was  occupied  with 
the  hard  work  of  fighting  against  the  infidel.  No 
Councils  were  held  except  in  Narbonnensis  (in  the  year 
788)  and  in  Urgel  of  Catalonia  (in  789),  both  of  which 
were  then  in  the  dominion  of  Charlemagne.  Towards 
the  end  of  the  century  there  sprang  up  the  heresy 
of  Migetius,  whose  tenets  it  is  difficult  for  us  to  learn 
with  exactness  from  the  reports  of  his  adversaries. 
Perhaps  his  system  was,  as  Gams  supposes/  a  mixture 
of  Christianity,  Judaism,  and  Mohammedanism.  If  he 
is  rightly  reported  to  us,  he  appears  to  have  taught  the 
existence  of  an  earthly  Trinity,  consisting  of  David, 
who  has  written,  ''  My  heart  is  inditing  of  a  good 
Word ; "  Christ,  who  is  that  Word ;  and  S.  Paul, 
who  was  an  apostle,  ''  not  of  men,  neither  by  man, 
but  by  Jesus  Christ  and  God  the  Father"  (Gal.  i.  i). 
He  is  said,  also,  to  have  been  very  strict  in  forbidding- 
Christians  and  unbelievers  to  eat  and  live  together; 
to  have  held  that  the  true  priest  of  God  could  not 
commit  sin,  and  that  the  Christian  Church  was  iden- 
tical with  the  Roman.  Elipandus  was  now  Bishop 
of  Toledo,  and  he  fell  upon  Migetius  less  with  argu- 

^  Kircheii'^escliiiJite,  ix.  2. 
230 


MIGETIAN  AND  ADOPTIONIST  HERESIES.      231 

ment  than  with  abuse,  denouncing  him  in  language 
of  extremest  violence.  Whether  Migetius  was  priest 
or  layman  does  not  appear;  probably  he  was  a  lay- 
man, living  in  the  city  or  province  of  Seville.  After 
a  time  we  find,  from  a  letter  of  Pope  Adrian  I.,  that 
he  made  a  convert  of  Bishop  Egila.  This  bishop,  of 
whom  we  would  fain  know  more,  was  ordained  by 
one  of  the  French  archbishops,  and  sent  by  Adrian 
into  Spain,  without  any  definite  See,  for  the  purpose 
of  inflaming  Christian  zeal  in  a  country  which  had 
so  easily  accepted  Mohammedanism.  After  being  in 
Spain  for  some  time,  Egila  wrote  to  Adrian  for  further 
instructions  respecting  the  observance  of  Easter,  the 
eating  of  things  strangled,  intercourse  with  unbe- 
lievers, and  predestination.  Not  receiving  an  answer, 
Egila  applied  to  Charlemagne,  who  requested  the  Pope 
to  send  to  Egila  a  second  copy  of  his  reply,  as  it 
appeared  that  the  first  had  been  lost.  Adrian  com- 
plied with  this  request  and  sent  him  the  required 
instruction  in  the  year  782.  Almost  immediately  after 
this  time  Egila  fell  under  the  influence  of  Migetius, 
and  adopted  his  system.  Adrian  warns  the  Spanish 
bishops  against  him  in  785  as  a  man  who  had  taken 
Migetius  as  his  master.  It  was  he,  perhaps,  that 
added  to  the  original  Migetian  doctrines  the  anti- 
national  opinion  as  to  the  perfection  and  supremacy 
of  the  Roman  Church;  for  it  would  appear  to  have 
been  by  the  act  of  Pope  Adrian,  and  without  the  con- 
sent of  the  authorities  of  the  Spanish  Church,  that 
Egila  was  sent  on  his  mission  into  Spain.  It  was 
apparently  this  part  of  the  Migetian  doctrines  which 
caused  the  extreme  bitterness  with  which   Elipandus 


o-j-) 


32        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

assailed  Migetius  and  repudiated  his  doctrines.  As 
Primate  of  Spain  he  maintained  the  traditional  in- 
dependence of  his  Church,  and  showed  impatience 
at  a  superiority  being  assigned  to  the  Church  of 
Rome;  and,  as  a  theologian,  he  rejected  with  scorn 
the  novel  and,  as  he  regarded  it,  absurd  position 
that  the  Roman  See  ^'constituted  the  Church 
Catholic  and  the  power  of  God."  How  could  it  be 
the  very  power  of  God,  he  asked,  without  spot  or 
blemish,  when  at  least  one  Bishop  of  Rome  had 
been  condemned  by  the  whole  of  Christendom  as  a 
heretic  ?  ^ 

In  the  darkness  of  the  eighth  century  we  are  not 
able  to  trace  the  issue  of  the  Migetian  controversy. 
The  interest  that  it  excited  was  soon  swallowed  up  in 
the  larger  question  of  Adoptionism,  which  was  opened 
a  few  years  later.     Elipandus,  the  denouncer  of  heresy 

1  "Quod  vero  asseris  quia  in  sola  Roma  sit  potestas  Dei,  in  qua 
Christus  habitat,  contrarius  Proplietoe  oraculo,  qui  dicit:  'Domina- 
bitur  k  mari  usque  ad  mare,  et  a  fluminibus  usque  ad  terminos  orbis 
terrse  : '  et  quia  ipsa  sit  tantum  Ecclesia  Catholica,  ubi  omnes  Sancti 
sint,  absque  macula,  et  ruga  ;  et  quia  de  ea  sola  dicalur.  *  Tu  es  Petrus, 
et  super  banc  petram  asdificabo  Ecclesiam  meam  : '  et  quia  non  in- 
trabit  in  ea  aliquid  coinquinatum  et  faciens  abominationem  et  menda- 
cium : '  et  quia  ipsa  est  Jerusalem  nova,  quam  vidit  Joannes  de- 
scendentem  de  Coelo.  Hacc  omnia  aniens  ille  spiritus  et  imprudentioe 
tuse  intellectus  te  ista  inielligere  docuit.  Nos  vero  e  contrario  non  de 
sola  Roma  Dominum  Petro  dixisse  credimus  :  *  Tu  es  Petrus,'  scilicet 
firmitas  fidei,  '  et  super  banc  petram  tedificabo  Ecclesiam  meam  ; ' 
sed  de  universali  Ecclesia  Catholica  per  universum  orbem  terrarum 
in  pace  diffusa ;  de  qua  ipse  Dominus  testatur  dicens  :  *  Venient  ab 
oriente  et  ab  occidente,  et  recumbent  cum  Abraham,  Isaac,  et  Jacob 
in  Regno  Cselorum.'  Nam  quod  asseris  quia  ipsa  est  ecclesia  sine 
macula,  et  rug^  ;  et  quia  non  intrabit  in  eR  aliquid  coinquinatum,  et 
faciens  abominationem  et  mendacium— si  ita  est,  quare  Liberius, 
ejusdem  Ecclesioe  Pontifex,  inter  hsereticos  damnatus  est  ?  Cur  Beatus 
Gregorius  tot  sceleratos  homines  in  Roma  fu'sse  protestatur?"  — 
Espafia  Sngrada,  v.  534. 


MiGETiAN  AND  ADOPTIONIST  HERESIES.     233 

in  Migetius,  here  is  himself  accused  of  heresy,  together 
with  Felix,  Bishop  of  Urgel.  The  essential  feature  of 
the  Adoptionist  heresy  was  the  tenet,  that  while  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  was  the  proper  Son  of  God  according 
to  His  Divine  nature,  in  His  human  nature  He  was  only 
His  Son  by  adoption.  It  is  probable  that  Elipandus 
was  pushed  into  this  opinion  by  the  scornful  arguments 
or  questionings  of  the  Moslems  amongst  whom  he 
lived,  asking  how  one  could  be  the  true  Son  of  God 
who  had  a  human  soul  and  body.  Elipandus  was 
an  impatient  man,  as  we  see  by  his  treatment  of  Mige- 
tius, and  he  was  not  clear-sighted  enough  to  perceive 
that  his  solution  of  the  difficulty  with  which  he  was 
pressed  did  not  make  due  distinction  between  the 
natures  and  the  person  of  our  Lord,  and  involved  in 
the  end  the  acceptance  of  the  Nestorian  rather  than 
the  orthodox  hypothesis.  He  was  an  old  man,  and 
distrusting  his  own  judgment,  he  wrote  to  Felix, 
Bishop  of  Urgel,  in  Catalonia,  to  ask  his  opinion  on 
the  subject.  Fehx  confirmed  him  in  the  view  that 
he  had  taken,  and  thenceforward  he  maintained  it 
to  the  end  of  his  Hfe,  disregarding  the  advice  of  Pope 
Adrian,  who  warned  the  Spanish  bishops  against  it  as 
a  mere  offshoot  of  Nestorianism  and  the  arguments 
of  Etherius,  Bishop  of  Osma,  and  the  Abbot  Beatus, 
who  set  themselves  in  opposition  to  the  new  dogma. 
As  Elipandus  was  living  in  the  dominion  of  the 
Moors,  no  coercive  force  could  be  brought  to  bear  upon 
him;  but  this  was  not  the  case  with  Fehx,  whose 
See  was  situated  in  Catalonia,  which  was  for  the 
time  subject  to  Charlemagne.  In  788  the  Archbishop 
of  Narbonne  held  a  Council,  which  condemned  Felix 


234         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

for  heresy.      In  792  Charlemagne  summoned  him  to 
attend  a  Synod  at  Ratisbon.     Felix  recanted  at  this 
Council,  and  at  a  Roman  Council  held  shortly  after- 
wards by  Pope  Adrian.     Returning  to  Urgel,  he  again 
disseminated  his  Adoptionist  doctrines.     Charlemagne 
brought  the  matter  before  the  great  Council  of  Frank- 
fort held  in  794.     Here  Adoptionism  was  again  con- 
demned, as  well  as  in  the  Council  of  Aquileia  held  in 
the   year  796   by  Bishop    Paulinus.     Felix   still  con- 
tinuing  wedded    to   his  views,    the   emperor   ordered 
a  synod  to  be  held  at  Urgel  by  the   Bishops  of  Nar- 
bonne    and    Lyons,    and    others,    in    the   year   799. 
Again    condemned,   Felix    appealed    to  Charles,    and 
was  allowed   by  him  to  appear  before  a  Council  held 
in    the    same    year    at    Aix-la-Chapelle,    where    his 
opinions  were   contravened    by  Alcuin.      Felix  again 
retracted,  and  again  revoked  his  retractation.      Once 
more  he  was  condemned  at  a  Council  held  at  Rome 
by  Leo  IH.     At  length  he  yielded,  drew  up  a  con- 
fession of  faith    that  was  approved  b}^  the  emperor, 
and,  to  be  out  of  temptation  for  the  future,  was  sent 
by  him  to  spend  the  rest  of  his  life  with  Leidradus, 
Bishop  of  Lyons.     In   this  retreat  he  returned   once 
more  to  his  old  convictions,  which,  perhaps,  he  had 
never  lost,  and  left  behind  him  a  treatise  arguing  in 
favour  of  Adoptionism,  to  which  Leidradus'   succes- 
sor,   Agobard,  published  a   reply.     No    other  leaders 
of  Adoptionism    appeared,   and    in    the    next   century 
it    ceased    any   longer    to    be   a   living   faith.      Like 
Priscillianism,    Adoptionism    was    a    heresy    of    the 
West,    and   it  was    almost   confined   to    Spain.     The 
East  never  troubled  itself  with  either  of  these  specu- 


MIGETIAN  AND  ADOPTIONIST  HERESIES.     235 

lations,  though  both  were  founded  on  Christological 
heresies  of  Eastern  growth.  Probably  it  regarded 
the  later  of  the  two  heresies  as  a  Logomachy 
arising  from  the  want  of  subtilty  of  the  duller 
Western  brain. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 
S.  JAMES  OF  COMPOSTELA. 

Contemporaneously  with  the  strife  respecting 
Adoptionism,  the  chief  seat  of  which  was  in  Catalonia, 
an  event  occurred  in  the  north-west  corner  of  Spain 
which  is  of  singular  interest  in  the  history  of  human 
credulity.  We  have  seen  that  the  power  of  the 
Christian  kings  had  now  overgrown  the  mountains  of 
the  Asturias  and  Cantabria,  and  Alonzo  II.,  surnamed 
the  Chaste,  had  transferred  the  royal  residence  to 
Oviedo.  The  Moorish  invaders  had  been  expelled, 
in  the  hundred  years  that  had  now  elapsed,  from  the 
whole  of  Galicia,  and  the  Christian  power  was  still 
on  the  increase.  The  Moslems,  while  very  jealous 
to  confine  worship  to  God  alone,  were  in  the  habit 
of  building  magnificent  memorials  to  their  saints, 
and  even  to  the  old  Jewish  patriarchs,  which  served 
as  local  centres  for  fanning  the  flame  of  their  piety 
or  fanaticism.  Their  Christian  opponents  seem  to 
have  felt  the  need  of  some  such  assistance  to  their 
zeal.  At  the  end  of  the  eighth  and  beginning  of 
the  ninth  century  Theodomir  was  Bishop  of  Iria,  in 
GaHcia.  It  was  reported  to  him  that  on  a  certain 
spot  in  his  diocese  a  hermit  named  Pelagius  and 
others   saw   lights   glancing    on   a   wooded    hill    and 

heard  angelic  music.     These  two  things  were  always 

236 


5.  JAMES  OF  COMPOSTELA.  237 

the  signs,  according  to  Spanish  legend,  of  the  pre- 
sence of  something  saintly.  Theodomir  went  to  see 
for  himself,  and  saw  the  moving  lights.  Thereupon 
he  set  men  to  dig,  and  they  found  a  tomb  lying 
under  some  marble  arches.  Whose  tomb  was  it  ? 
At  some  time  previous,  the  exact  date  of  which  is 
uncertain,  a  statement  had  been  inserted  amongst 
the  works  of  Isidore  that  James  the  Apostle,  who 
was  so  described  that  he  must  have  been  at  once 
James  the  son  of  Zebedee  and  James  the  brother  of 
the  Lord,  had  preached  in  Spain,  and  had  been  buried 
in  Marmarica.  This  was  enough  for  the  foundation. 
Of  course  it  was  the  body  of  S.  James,  the  more  as 
it  was  found  under  marble  arches;  for  Theodomir 
and  his  associates  did  not  know  that  Marmarica  was 
a  district  in  the  north  of  Africa,  and  supposed  it  to 
mean  marble,  making  use  of  the  newly  coined  adjec- 
tive marinorica  for  mannorea,  and  supposing  that 
this  was  what  was  meant  by  the  Marmarica  in  the 
passage  above  interpolated  into  Isidore's  writings. 
Theodomir  hastened  to  tell  King  Alonzo  of  the  event. 
Alonzo  had  no  doubts  on  the  subject,  and  at  once 
transferred  the  See  of  Iria  to  the  spot,  which  took  the 
name  of  Compostela.  Pope  Leo  III.  was  communi- 
cated with,  and  it  is  from  a  letter  written  by  or  falsely 
attributed  to  this  Pope  that  we  derive  our  first  in- 
formation respecting  the  voyage  of  S.  James'  body  to 
Spain  after  his  martyrdom  by  Herod  Agrippa  (whom 
the  Pseudo-Isidore  calls  Herod  the  Tetrarch).  Such 
was  the  origin  of  the  legend  of  the  connexion  of  S. 
James  with  Spain.  It  was  adopted  without  a  moment's 
hesitation  by  Alonzo,  whether  from  motives  of  policy. 


238         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

that  Christians  miglit  have  a  local  centre  superior  to 
any  Marabout's  tomb  at  which  to  keep  the  flame  of 
their  faith  alive,  or,  as  is  more  likely  from  his  charac- 
ter, from  simple  superstition.  There  is  extant — who 
shall  say  whether  it  is  genuine  or  not  ? — a  document 
addressed  to  Theodomir  in  which  Alonzo  grants  "to 
this  Blessed  James  the  Apostle,  and  to  this  our  Father 
Theodomir,  three  miles  round  the  tomb  of  the  Church 
of  the  Blessed  James  the  Apostle."  ''  For,"  continues 
the  king,  "  the  proof  of  this  most  blessed  Apostle, 
that  is,  his  most  holy  body,  has  been  revealed  in  our 
time.  As  soon  as  I  heard  of  it,  I  and  the  grandees 
of  my  palace  ran  to  worship  and  venerate  so  precious 
a  treasure  with  much  devotion  and  supplication,  and 
we  adored  him  as  the  Patron  and  Lord  of  the  whole 
of  Spain,  with  tears  and  abundant  prayers ;  and  of  our 
own  will  we  have  made  the  aforesaid  little  gift,  and 
we  liave  built  a  church  in  his  honour,  and  we  have 
united  the  See  of  Iria  with  this  sacred  place,  for  the 
good  of  our  soul  and  that  of  our  parents,  so  that  all 
these  things  may  be  yours  and  your  successors'  for 
ever."  The  date  of  this  alleged  grant  is  either  A.D. 
824  or  829,  and  it  is  signed  by  Alonzo,  his  son 
Ramiro,  and  five  others.^ 

Ramiro  succeeded  his  father,  Alonzo  the  Chaste,  in 
842,  and  another  charter,  or  grant,  in  favour  of  S. 
James  and  his  church  is  assigned  to  the  second  year 
of  his  reign.    Whatever  may  be  the  case  as  to  Alonzo's 

^  Either  Alonzo  and  Theodomir  were  acting  in  collusion,  in  which 
case  the  discovery  of  the  body  and  the  invention  of  the  legend  were 
a  political  stratagem  emanating  from  the  king,  or,  more  probably, 
Theodomir  perpetrated  the  fraud  for  the  elevation  of  his  See,  and  the 
king  was  his  dupe  and  cat's-paw. 


S.  JAMES  OF  COMPOSTELA.  239 

grant,  this  which  is  attributed  to  his  son,  called  Privi- 
legium  Votonmty  is  without  doubt  spurious;  but  as 
it  contains  in  the  simplest  language  an  account  of  the 
manner  in  which  S.  James  became  the  leader  of  the 
armies  of  the  Christians  in  Spain  in  their  battles  with 
the  Moors,  it  is  worthy  of  a  place  in  history,  though 
we  cannot  tell  the  exact  date  at  which  it  was  com- 
posed. "There  were,"  the  king  is  made  to  say,  "in 
old  days,  about  the  time  when  Spain  was  destroyed 
by  the  Saracens  and  Roderic  was  king,  some  ancestors 
of  ours,  slothful,  negligent,  careless,  and  idle,  whose 
way  of  life  is  not  a  matter  of  imitation  to  any  believer. 
To  save  themselves  from  being  troubled  by  the  raids 
of  the  Saracens,  they  agreed  to  pay  a  shameful  tribute 
every  year,  namely,  a  hundred  most  beautiful  girls — 
fifty  belonging  to  the  noble  class  and  fifty  to  the  lower 
orders.  Christian  girls  were  thus  given  in  order  to 
procure  a  momentary  peace,  a  shameful  thing,  making 
a  precedent  honoured  in  its  breach.  Being  descended 
from  those  princes,  we  determined  to  abolish  this  dis- 
grace of  our  nation,  and  in  order  to  carry  out  our 
determination,  we  took  counsel,  first  with  our  arch- 
bishops, bishops,  abbots,  and  monks,  and  afterwards 
with  all  the  nobles  of  our  kingdom.  Having  received 
from  them  good  and  wholesome  counsel,  we  promul- 
gated a  law  at  Leon  and  established  customs  for 
general  observance;  then  we  issued  an  edict  to  all 
our  nobles  to  summon  from  the  very  ends  of  our 
kingdom  all  men  fit  for  battle,  noble  and  simple,  horse 
and  foot,  to  assemble  on  an  appointed  day.  We  also 
desired  our  archbishops  and  bishops,  and  abbots  and 
monks,  to  be  present  to  encourage  our  soldiers  by  their 


240        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

prayers.  Our  command  was  obeyed.  None  were  left 
to  till  the  lands  except  the  feeble  and  such  as  were 
unfit  for  war ;  the  rest  all  met^  not  with  the  unwilHng- 
ness  shown  by  men  acting  under  orders,  but  gladly, 
for  the  love  of  God  and  under  the  guidance  of  God. 
With  them,  I,  King  Ramiro,  trusting  in  the  mercy  of 
God  rather  than  in  our  numbers,  directed  an  expedition 
to  Naxira,  and  then  to  Albella.  All  the  Saracens  in 
the  country,  hearing  of  our  approach,  gathered  to- 
gether and  summoned  their  allies  from  beyond  seas, 
and  attacked  us  in  great  force.  Assaulted  and  wounded 
and  many  of  us  falling,  we  were  for  our  sins  turned  in 
flight,  and  fled  in  confusion  to  a  hill  called  Clavigius, 
and  there,  crowded  together,  we  spent  the  night  in 
tears  and  prayers,  not  in  the  least  knowing  what  we 
should  do  next  day.  Sleep  fell  upon  me.  King  Ramiro, 
while  I  was  forming  plans,  in  deep  anxiety  for  the 
danger  of  the  Christians.  As  I  slept  the  blessed 
James,  protector  of  Spain,  deigndcl  to  appear  in  bodily 
form.  In  astonishment  I  asked  him  who  he  was, 
and  he  confessed  tliat  he  was  the  Apostle  of  God, 
the  blessed  James.  As  I  was  more  amazed  than  can 
be  described  at  these  words,  the  blessed  Apostle  said, 
'Did  not  you  know  that  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
when  He  distributed  districts  among  my  brethren  the 
apostles,  allotted  the  wliole  of  Spain  to  my  protection 
and  committed  it  to  my  guardianship  ? '  And  grasp- 
ing my  hand  with  his  own,  '  Be  strong,'  said  he,  '  and 
courageous,  for  I  will  be  your  helper,  and  in  the 
morning  you  shall  conquer,  by  the  hand  of  God,  the 
innumerable  multitude  of  Saracens  by  whom  you  are 
surrounded;  but  many  of  your  men,  for  whom  eternal 


5.  JAMES  OF  COMPOSTELA.  241 

rest  is  already  prepared,  will,  in  the  moment  of  battle, 
receive  the  crown  of  martyrdom  for  the  name  of  Christ. 
That  you  may  have  no  doubts,  both  you  and  the 
Saracens  shall  see  me  all  the  time  on  a  white  horse, 
carrying  a  lofty  white  standard.  Early  in  the  morning, 
then,  after  confessing  your  sins  and  doing  penance, 
and  having  celebrated  Mass  and  received  the  Com- 
munion of  the  body  and  blood  of  the  Lord,  do  not 
hesitate  to  assault  the  Saracen  lines  with  your  forces, 
invoking  God's  name  and  mine,  and  be  sure  that  they 
will  fall  by  the  edge  of  the  sword.'  With  these  words, 
the  beloved  form  of  the  Apostle  of  God  disappeared 
from  my  sight.  In  great  excitement  at  so  glorious 
a  vision  I  woke  from  sleep,  and  calling  the  arch- 
bishops, bishops,  and  monks  together  by  themselves, 
I  declared  to  them,  with  tears  and  sighs  and  contrition 
of  heart,  the  revelation  that  had  been  made  to  me. 
They  fell  down  in  prayer  and  gave  incessant  thanks 
to  God  and  the  Apostle  for  the  wonderful  consolation 
given  us,  and  then  we  hurried  to  set  the  matter  in 
order  as  we  had  been  instructed.  We  drew  up  our 
line  of  battle  and  entered  on  the  fight  with  the  Saracens. 
And  the  blessed  Apostle  of  God  appeared,  as  he  had 
promised,  to  both  sides,  encouraging  and  animating 
our  men  to  battle,  and  driving  back  and  striking  down 
the  Saracen  troops.  At  once  we  recognised  that  the 
promise  of  the  blessed  Apostle  was  being  fulfilled, 
and  exhilarated  with  so  grand  a  vision,  we  called  upon 
the  name  of  God  and  the  Apostle  with  loud  cries  and 
with  all  our  hearts,  saying,  ^  Help  us,  God  and  S. 
James.'  This  is  the  first  time  that  this  invocation 
was  made  in  Spain,  and,  by  God's  mercy,  it  was  not  in 


242         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

vain;  for  on  that  day  there  fell  about  seventy  thousand 
Saracens.  We  pursued  them,  overthrew  their  fortifi- 
cations, and  captured  the  city  of  Calahorra,  subjecting 
it  to  the  Christian  religion.  Thinking  over  this  great 
miracle  of  the  Apostle  after  our  unexpected  victory, 
we  determined  to  make  a  gift  to  our  patron  and  pro- 
tector, the  most  blessed  James,  which  should  last  for 
ever.  We  therefore  made  a  decree  and  vow  that 
throughout  Spain,  and  in  every  part  of  Spain  which 
God  should  deign  to  free  from  the  Saracens  through 
the  name  of  the  Apostle  James,  for  every  yoke  of 
oxen  a  measure  of  the  best  products  of  the  land  should 
be  given  as  first-fruits  every  year  for  ever  to  the 
minister  of  the  Church  of  S.  James,  and  wine  in  the 
same  proportion,  for  the  support  of  the  canons  of  the 
same  church.  And  we  granted,  and  we  appoint  for 
ever,  that  out  of  whatever  the  Christians  get  from 
the  Saracens  in  any  of  their  expeditions  throughout 
Spain,  one  soldier's  portion  shall  be  set  aside  for 
our  glorious  patron  and  protector  of  Spain,  the  blessed 
James.  All  these  donations,  vows,  and  offerings  we, 
the  whole  body  of  Sp/inish  Christians,  promised  to 
give  every  year  to  the  Church  of  the  Blessed  James ; 
and  we  give  them  for  ourselves,  and  they  are  ever  to 
be  observed  by  our  successors  in  a  canonical  manner. 
We  pray,  therefore.  Almighty  Father  and  Eternal  God, 
that,  by  the  blessed  intercession  of  the  blessed  James, 
Thou  wilt  not  remember,  O  Lord,  our  iniquities,  but 
of  Thy  pity  have  mercy  upon  us  unworthy ;  and  that 
those  things  which  we  have  given  and  offer  in  Thy 
honour  to  Thy  blessed  Apostle  James  out  of  what 
wc  have  obtained  by  Thy  aid  ma}'  avail  for  ourselves 


5.  JAMES  OF  COMPOSTELA.  243 

and  our  successors  for  the  healing  of  our  souls,  and 
that  by  his  intercession  Thou  mayest  deign  to  receive 
us  with  Thine  elect  into  eternal  tabernacles,  Thou  who 
livest  and  reignest  in  Trinity  for  ever  and  ever,  Amen. 
We  also  will  and  appoint  an  everlasting  statute  that 
our  descendants,  and  all  others,  shall  ever  give  their 
support  to  the  aforesaid  donations  to  the  Church  of 
the  Blessed  James.  So  that  if  any  of  our  descendants, 
or  any  other,  shall  violate  this  our  testament  or  not  help 
to  carry  it  out,  whether  he  be  a  cleric  or  layman,  he 
may  be  damned  for  ever  in  hell  with  the  traitor  Judas, 
and  Dathan  and  Abiram,  whom  the  earth  swallowed 
alive,  and  that  his  sons  may  be  orphans  and  his  wife 
a  widow,  and  that  another  may  take  his  kingdom  on 
earth,  and  that  he  may  be  separated  from  the  Com- 
munion of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  and  be  for 
ever  deprived  of  a  share  in  the  eternal  kingdom.  Be- 
sides which,  he  is  to  pay  a  fine  of  six  thousand  pounds 
of  silver  to  the  Crown  and  to  the  Church  of  the  Blessed 
James,  and  this  ordinance  is  ever  to  remain  in  force; 
and  we,  archbishops,  bishops,  and  abbots,  who  by 
God's  help  saw  with  our  own  eyes  this  miracle  which 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  deigned  to  exhibit  to  our  illus- 
trious King  Ramiro  by  his  Apostle  James,  confirm 
for  ever  the  aforesaid  oath  made  by  our  king  and  the 
whole  of  Spanish  Christendom,  and  we  canonically 
rule  that  it  shall  be  observed  for  ever.  And  if  any  one 
disregards  this  document  and  the  donation  to  be  made 
to  the  Church  of  the  Blessed  James,  and  refuses  to  pay 
it,  be  he  who  he  may,  king,  prince,  countryman,  cleric, 
layman,  we  curse  him,  and  we  excommunicate  him, 
and  we  damn  him  to  be  tormented  for  ever  with  the 


244        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

punishment  of  hell,  together  with  the  traitor  Judas. 
And  our  successors,  archbishops,  and  bishops  are 
to  renew  this  curse  every  year;  and  if  they  refuse, 
let  them  be  damned  by  the  authority  of  the  Almighty 
God,  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  and  by  ours,  and 
let  them  be  excommunicated.  This  Act  of  consolation, 
donation,  and  offering  was  written  in  the  town  of 
Calahorra  on  the  well-known  day  the  8th  of  the 
Calends  of  June,  in  the  era  872  (a.D.  844)."  This 
document  is  signed  by  King  Ramiro,  his  Queen 
Urraca,  his  son  King  Ordofio,  his  brother  King 
Garcia,  the  Archbishop  of  Cantabria,  five  bishops,  nine 
nobles,  six  witnesses,  and  it  has  the  following  sentence 
after  their  names :  '^  We,  the  whole  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Spain  who  were  present  and  saw  with  our  own  eyes 
the  above-written  miracle  of  our  blessed  patron  and 
protector,  the  most  glorious  Apostle  James,  and  won 
a  triumph  over  the  Saracens  by  the  mercy  of  God, 
give  our  sanction  to  what  is  written  above,  and  con- 
firm it,  as  a  thing  to  last  for  ever."  ^ 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that  this  charter,  or  testa- 
ment, or  privilegimUy  is  a  forgery  composed  many 
years  later  than  the  date  of  King  Ramiro  for  the 
sake  of  securing  the  grants  named  in  it  to  the  canons 
of  the  Church  of  Compostela.  There  never  was  a 
tribute  of  a  hundred  maidens  paid  by  the  Asturian 
kings  to  the  Saracens,  there  never  was  a  battle  of 
Clavijo,  and,  in  the  time  of  Ramiro,  there  were  no 
archbishops  in  Spain.  The  title  Archbishop  was  un- 
known in  Spain  until  the  reconquest  of  Toledo  from 
the  Saracens  in  the  year  1085  ;  and  there  was  no  arch- 

^  Florez,  Espana  Sagrada,  xix.  334. 


S.  JAMES  OF  COMPOSTELA.  245 

bishop  in  the  Asturias,  Cantabria,  Leon,  or  Galicia 
till  the  time  of  Gelmirez,  Bishop  of  Santiago,  in  1121, 
who  obtained  the  title  of  Archbishop  from  the  Pope. 
We  may  regard  the  document  as  a  product  of  the 
twelfth  century,  embodying  the  belief  then  existing 
as  to  the  manner  in  which  S.  James  became  the  leader 
of  the  armies  of  the  Christians  against  the  infidels. 

Other  charters  or  donations  are  in  existence  which 
are  probably  genuine.  Ordofio  I.  in  854  grants  three 
more  miles  of  territory  to  the  Bishop  of  Santiago, 
together  with  all  the  people  who  lived  upon  it. 
Alonzo  III.  in  S66  confirms  previous  gifts  and 
assigns  to  him  several  towns  and  churches  and 
estates.  The  same  sovereign  built  a  magnificent 
church  in  succession  to  the  smaller  edifice  erected 
by  Alonzo  II.  The  work  occupied  him  two  years, 
as  he  brought  his  materials,  consisting  mostly  of 
marble,  from  Portugal  by  sea,  making  his  Moorish 
captives  carry  them  from  the  coast  to  Compostela. 
In  899  the  church  was  consecrated  in  the  presence 
of  the  king  and  his  Court  by  seventeen  bishops. 
Alonzo  describes  with  pride  the  marble  columns  and 
sculptured  work  of  his  new  church,  which  he  com- 
pares with  the  common  stone  and  mud  used  by  his 
predecessor,  and  he  gives  us  a  lengthy  list  of  the 
holy  relics  which  were  deposited  under  the  various 
altars,^  and    desires   Bishop    Sisnandus    to    pray  that 

^  The  following  is  the  list  of  relics  : — Part  of  i.  Our  Lord's  tomb  ; 
2.  Our  Lord's  vestment  at  the  time  of  His  crucifixion  ;  3.  The  Saviour's 
tunic  ;  4.  The  earth  on  which  the  Lord  stood ;  5.  The  wood  of  the 
holy  cross  ;  6.  The  bread  of  the  Lord  ;  7.  The  milk  of  S.  Mary ; 
8.  The  ashes  and  blood  of  S.  James  the  Apostle  ;  9.  Of  S.  Thomas 
the  Apostle;  10.  Of  Bishop  Martin  ;  11.  Of  S.  Vincent;  12.  Of  S. 
Christopher;    13.  Of  S.  Bandulu^  ;  14.   Of  S.  Julian;  15.  Of  S.  Basi- 


246        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

when  he  dies  he  may  have  forgiveness  and  eternal 
peace.  A  few  years  later  Alonzo  is  said  to  have 
written  to  the  clergy  at  Tours  glorying  in  the  presence 
of  S.  James's  body,  and  telling  them  that  it  certainly 
was  that  of  the  son  of  Zebedee,  and  that  it  was  under 
marble  arches  in  the  province  of  GaHcia;  *'for  by 
the  guiding  hand  of  the  Lord,  as  many  truthful 
histories  relate,  his  body  was  brought  here  by  a 
ship  and  buried,  and  his  tomb  is  renowned  for  many 
miracles:  demons  are  cast  out,  sight  is  given  to  the 
blind,  power  of  walking  to  the  lame,  hearing  to  the 
deaf,  speech  to  the  dumb,  as  well  as  many  other 
wonderful  things  which  we  know  and  have  seen,  and 
which  the  bishops  and  clergy  have  told  us.  The  way 
in  which  he  was  beheaded  in  Jerusalem  by  Herod 
and  brought  hither  and  buried,  and  the  time  and 
manner  in  which  this  occurred,  is  evidently  manifest 
to  all,  and  is  witnessed  to  by  the  truthful  letters  of 
our  archbishops  and  the  histories  of  the  Fathers  and 
the  speech  of  many."  ^ 

Ordono  II.  in  915,  Fruela  II.  in  924,  Ramiro  II.  in 
932,  Ordono  III.  in  952,  and  other  sovereigns  added 
to  the  endowment  of  the  church  by  further  gifts  of 
land   and  wealth,  which  brought  about  its  destruction 

lisi ;  16.  Of  S.  Leocadia  ;  17.  Of  S.  Eulalia  ;  18.  Of  S.  Marina  ;  19. 
Of  S.  Peter;  20.  Of  S.  Paul ;  21.  Of  S.  Andrew ;  22.  Of  S.  Fructuosus ; 
23.  OfS.  Lucia;  24.  Of  S.  Rufina;  25.  Of  S.  Lucrea;  26.  Of  S.John; 
27.  Of  S.  Bariliolomew  ;  28.  Of  S.  Laurence  ;  29.  Of  S.  John  the 
Baptist;  30.  Some  of  our  Lord's  blood;  31.  Some  of  S.  Mary's 
blood  ;  in  addition  to  a  box  of  relics  of  other  martyrs. 

^  F/orez,  xix.  348.  It  appears  from  this  letter,  spurious  as  it  is, 
that  it  was  the  habit  of  the  different  local  churches  to  report  to  each 
other  the  glories  each  of  their  own  church.  This  may  account,  in 
some  degree,  for  the  miracles  claimed  by  each  in  rivalry  to  the 
other. 


S.  JAMBS  OF  COMPOSTELA.  247 

at  the  hands  of  Almanzor  in  the  year  997.  After  his 
raid  it  was  again  rebuilt,  and  at  the  beginning  of 
the  twelfth  century  Gelmirez,  a  prelate  of  turbulent 
ambition,  succeeded  by  means  of  intrigue  and  bribery 
in  inducing  the  Pope,  whose  authority  was  now  recog- 
nised in  Spain,  to  raise  the  See  to  the  rank  of  an 
archbishopric.  How  S.  James's  body  was  again  lost 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  owing  to  the  ^'  heretical  fury  " 
of  the  English,  and  again  found  by  the  existing  arch- 
bishop in  1879,  has  been  already  related  in  the  words 
of  Pope  Leo  XIII.i 

At  the  same  time  that  Theodomir  and  his  associates 
were  debasing  and  materiahsing  Christianity  in  Spain 
by  the  introduction  of  the  fable  of  S.  lago,  and  by  their 
devotion  to  his  supposed  tomb  and  relics,  another 
Spaniard  was  fighting  a  brave  battle  for  the  main- 
tenance of  its  more  spiritual  character  in  the  north 
of  Italy.  This  was  Claudius,  known  as  Claudius  of 
Turin.  Summoned  by  Louis  the  Pious  to  his  court, 
he  there  occupied  himself  in  composing  commentaries 
on  Scripture,  and  in  814,  on  the  emperor's  nomina- 
tion, became  Bishop  of  Turin.  A  student  of  S. 
Augustine,  and  adopting  Augustinian  theology,  he 
contrasted  Divine  grace  with  human  merit,  and  op- 
posed himself  to  the  religious  tendency  of  the  age 
by  depreciating  external  acts  of  formal  religion  in 
comparison  with  spiritual  worship  and  unselfish  de- 
votion to  God.  Finding  that  images  and  crosses 
had  become  objects  of  adoration,  he  removed  them 
from  the  churches ;  he  denied  the  value  of  relics  and 
of  pilgrimages,   and  taught    that   the   intercession   of 

^  See  Chap.  i.  p.  9. 


248        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

saints  would  not  save  men  of  irreligious  life.  Abbot 
Theodomir,  head  of  a  monastery  near  Nismes,  who 
had  been  his  friend,  taking  alarm  at  his  doctrines, 
lodged  a  complaint  against  him  before  an  assembly 
of  bishops,  and  addressed  a  letter  to  him  lamenting 
the  evil  done  by  his  views,  which  were  spreading 
through  the  north  of  Italy,  France,  and  Spain. 
Claudius  wrote  a  defence,  condemning  in  the  most 
uncompromising  way  image-worship,  saint-worship, 
pilgrimages,  especially  pilgrimages  to  Rome,  and  trust 
in  the  merits  or  intercession  of  others.  He  even 
ventured  to  remind  Theodomir  that  it  was  only  while 
S.  Peter  was  on  earth,  not  after  he  had  gone  to 
heaven,  that  he  had  been  given  power  to  bind  and 
loose,  and  that  it  was  not  sitting  in  the  seat  of  an 
apostle  which  made  a  man  apostolic  (this  against 
Pascal  I.,  who  had  found  fault  with  him),  but  ful- 
filling the  work  of  an  apostle.  Such  plain  speaking 
could  not  be  allowed  to  pass.  An  Irishman  named 
Dungal,  and  Jonas,  Bishop  of  Orleans,  undertook  to 
refute  his  opinions,  but  he  died  in  839,  and,  perhaps 
through  the  powerful  protection  of  the  emperor,  with- 
out any  condemnation  having  been  pronounced  upon 
him. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THE  CORDOVAN  CALIPHATE. 

After  Abderrahman  had  established  himself  in  power 
the  anarchy  which  had  existed  among  the  Moham- 
medan conquerors  in  Spain  came  to  an  end.  Ab- 
derrahman was,  it  will  be  remembered,  the  sole  sur- 
viving representative  of  the  Ommiad  caliphs,  who 
had  reigned  for  a  hundred  years  at  Damascus.  It 
was  his  fortune  now  to  establish  a  new  Hne  of 
Ommiad  caliphs  at  Cordova,  which  lasted  for  nearly 
three  hundred  years.  He  did  not,  however,  call  him- 
self caliph.  He  and  his  immediate  succcessors  adopted 
only  the  inferior  title  of  emir  or  sultan,  which  was  in 
itself  a  recognition  of  the  Abbasside  Hne  of  CaHphs 
of  Bagdad,  though  the  lords  of  Cordova,  in  fact,  paid 
no  obedience  to  them,  and  in  the  time  of  the  third 
Abderrahman  assumed  the  title  of  caHph,  claiming 
thus  equality  with  them,  if  not  denying  their  authority 
altogether.  Almost  as  soon  as  Abderrahman  had 
estabHshed  himself  at  Cordova  he  had  to  contend 
with  an  emissary  of  the  Abbassides,  Ibn-Mughith. 
Defeating  him  in  a  fiercely  fought  battle,  he  cut  off 
his  head  and  the  heads  of  the  other  leaders  of  his 
party,  and  sent  them  as  a  present  to  the  Abbasside 
caliph.      Finding  himself  still  exposed  to  the  danger 

of  rebellion  in  Spain,  he  surrounded  himself  with  a 

249 


2 so        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

bodyguard  of  Berbers,  who  secured  the  throne  for 
himself  and  his  dynasty.  The  latter  part  of  his 
reign  was  spent  in  beautifying  his  capital,  and  in  784 
he  began  building  the  famous  mosque  which  still 
remains  for  the  admiration  of  the  world,  having  passed 
into  the  hands  of  the  Christians,  whose  Church  of  S. 
Vincent  the  sultan  destroyed  for  the  sake  of  making 
room  for  his  mosque.  As  it  now  stands,  the  mosque 
occupies  a  space  measuring  from  north  to  south  410 
feet,  and  from  east  to  west  440.  The  parallelogram  thus 
formed  is  divided  by  rows  of  pillars,  1 293  in  all,  into 
thirty-one  aisles  or  arcades  running  from  east  to  west, 
and  nineteen  running  from  north  to  south.  The  pillars 
are  all  of  marble  gathered  from  Christian  churches 
or  ancient  temples,  and  the  aisles  are  surmounted  by 
a  double  horse-shoe  arch  thrown  across  from  one  row 
of  pillars  to  another,  the  lower  arch  being  a  few  feet 
beneath  the  upper  ;  the  roof  is  much  lower  than  would 
be  admissible  in  any  architecture  except  the  Arabian, 
being  only  thirty-five  feet  from  the  ground.  The  ap- 
pearance of  the  interior  of  the  mosque  is  at  present 
marred  by  a  pile  of  building  introduced  into  it  in  the 
time  of  Charles  V.  to  serve  as  a  choir.  The  ki'dlay  or 
sacred  point  towards  which  the  Moslems  address  their 
prayers,  still  remains.  It  is  an  octagon  chapel,  the 
roof  of  which  consists  of  one  block  of  marble  wrought 
into  the  shape  of  a  shell.  It  was  entered  by  a  door- 
way surmounted  by  a  horse-shoe  arch,  surrounded 
by  brilliant  mosaic-work.  Its  stone  floor  is  worn  by 
the  feet  of  Moslem  pilgrims,  who  used  to  compass 
it  seven  times,  walking  backwards  with  bare  feet. 
The  kid/a  represents,  or  ought  to  represent,  the  direc- 


THE  CORDOVAN  CALIPHATE.  251 

tion  of  Mecca,  and  therefore  in  Spain  it  should  have 
been  towards  the  east  of  the  building,  but  whereas 
most  of  the  Moslem  conquests  lay  to  the  north  of 
Mecca,  it  had  become  customary  to  fix  this  sacred 
point  towards  the  south.  When  the  time  came  for 
settling  where  the  kibla  should  be  placed  for  the 
Mosque  of  Cordova  the  question  was  gravely  debated. 
It  was  finally  determined  to  follow  previous  prece- 
dent and  fix  it  in  the  south.^  The  pulpit  was  of 
ivory  and  inlaid  woods,  and  the  building  was  lighted 
by  a  number  of  lamps,  to  add  to  which  Almanzor 
carried  off  the  bells  of  S.  lago  de  Compostela  in  the 
year  997.  The  mosque  was  to  the  kings  and  caliphs 
of  Cordova  what  S.  lago  de  Compostela  was  to  the 
kings  of  Oviedo  and  Leon,  a  religious  toy,  and  at  the 
same  time  a  feeder  of  religious  fanaticism.  Abder- 
rahman's  son,  Hischam,  continued  the  work  of  his 
father  and  brought  the  substantial  part  of  the  building 
to  a  conclusion ;  but  each  sovereign,  during  the  palmy 
days  of  Cordova,  added  his  quota  to  the  magnificence 
of  the  mosque,  as  each  Asturian  king  poured  his  gifts 
on   Compostela.      The  war  was  a  war  of  races,  but 

^  While  the  architects,  mathematicians,  and  astronomers  were  dis- 
puting among  themselves,  the  Faquih  Abu  Ibraham  came  up  to 
Alhakem  and  said,  '*  O  Prince  of  the  Believers  !  all  the  people  of 
this  nation  have  constantly  turned  their  faces  to  the  south  while 
making  their  prayers.  It  was  to  the  south  that  the  imams,  the 
doctors,  the  kddis,  and  all  the  Moslems  directed  their  looks  ;  and  it 
was  to  the  south  that  the  tabis  (may  God  show  them  mercy  !)  inclined 
the  kiblas  of  all  their  mosques.  Remember  the  proverb  which  says, 
'  It  is  preferable  to  follow  the  example  of  others  and  be  saved  than 
to  perish  by  separating  from  the  track.'  Upon  which  the  caliph 
exclaimed,  '  By  Allah,  thou  sayest  right  !  I  am  for  following  the 
example  of  the  tabis^  whose  opinion  is  of  great  weight"  (Makkari, 
Book  iii.  c.  2). 


252         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

it  was  also  a  war  of  religions,  and  the  two  religions 
found  their  material  exhibition  in  the  Church  of  S.  lago 
de  Compostela  and  the  Mosque  of  Cordova. 

The  Ommiad  dynasty  of  Cordova  was  not  content 
with  conquering  their  Christian  rivals  in  the  field ;  they 
would  surpass  them  also  and  make  themselves  a  mark 
for  the  admiration  of  the  whole  world  by  becoming 
in  the  West  the  exponents  of  an  Oriental  splendour 
and  civilisation  which  should  overpass  the  glories  of 
even  the  caliphs  of  Damascus  or  Bagdad.  Of  this 
splendour  the  city  of  Cordova  should  be  the  symbol. 
Abderrahman's  son,  Hischam,  built  the  noble  bridge  of 
Cordova  which  still  spans  the  Guadalquivir.  Hakem, 
A.D.  796,  Abderrahman  II.,  A.D.  821,  Mohammed, 
A.D.  852,  Mundhir,  A.D.  886,  Abdallah,  A.D.  888,  all 
added  to  the  magnificence  of  the  city.  Abderrahman 
III.,  who  succeeded  in  the  year  912,  excelled  his  pre- 
decessors in  the  splendour  of  his  buildings  as  in  the 
mihtary  and  statesman-like  power  that  he  exhibited. 
The  palace  which  he  is  famed  for  building  is  that 
of  Azzahra  or  Ez-zahra,  named  after  one  of  his 
favourite  wives  who  bore  the  name  of  Ez-zahra,  "  the 
fairest."^     It  is  said  that  ten  thousand  workmen  and 

^  The  Arabian  historian  Makkari  describes  the  course  of  its  building 
as  follows: — "The  sultan  determined  to  spend  some  money  in  the 
redemption  of  captives.  A  search  was  accordingly  made  in  the 
country  of  the  Franks,  but  not  one  Moslem  captive  could  be  found  ; 
upon  which  An-nassir  (Abderrahman  III.)  was  greatly  delighted, 
and  gave  thanks  to  God.  His  mistress,  Azzahra,  then  said,  *  Build 
with  that  money  a  city  that  may  take  my  name,'  and  in  compliance 
with  her  wish  he  built  the  city.  The  favourite,  however,  being  dis- 
satisfied with  the  appearance  of  the  mountains  behind,  said  to  her 
royal  spouse,  '  See,  O  master,  how  beautiful  this  girl  looks  in  the  arms 
of  yonder  Ethiopian.'  On  hearing  which,  An-nassir  gave  immediate 
orders  for  the  removal  of  the  mountain  (the  Sierra  Morena)  ;  but  one 


THE  CORDOVAN  CALIPHATE.  253 

three  thousand  beasts  of  burden  were  employed  every 
day  for  forty  years  in  the  construction  of  the  palace, 
in  which  there  were  four  thousand  columns  of  marble, 
fifteen  thousand  doors  of  brass,  a  vast  hall,  with  walls 
of  marble  and  gold,  containing  a  fountain  presented 
by  the  Emperor  of  Constantinople,  and  a  large  basin 
of  quicksilver,  which  cast  dazzling  flashes  around  it. 
There  was  also  a  marble  terrace  from  which  a  view 
was  obtained  of  gardens  filled  with  shrubs  and  flowers, 
and  having  in  it  a  lake  with  fish  fed  every  day  on 
twelve  thousand  loaves.  The  number  of  palace  slaves 
is  said  to  have  been  twenty-three  thousand,  including 
six  thousand  women.  ^*We  might  go  to  a  great 
length,"  writes  Makkari,  "were  we  to  enumerate  all 
the  beauties,  natural  as  well  as  artificial,  contained 
within  the  precincts  of  Azzahra, — the  running  streams, 
the  limpid  waters,  the  luxuriant  gardens,  the  stately 
buildings  for  the  household  guard,  the  magnificent 
palaces  for  the  high  functionaries  of  State ;  the  throng 
of  soldiers,  pages,  and  slaves  of  all  nations  and 
religions,  sumptuously  attired  in  robes  of  silk  and 
brocade,  moving  to  and  fro  through  the  broad  streets ; 
or  the  crowd  of  judges,  theologians,  and  poets  walk- 
ing with  becoming  gravity  through  the  magnificent 
halls  and  ample  courts  of  the  palace.  .  ,  .  '  Praise  be 
to  Allah ! '  exclaims  the  good  Moslem,  '  who  allowed 
his  humble  creatures  to  design  and  build  such 
enchanting  palaces  as  this,  and  who  permitted  them 
to  inhabit  them  as  a  sort  of  recompense  in  this  world, 

of  his  counsellors,  happening  to  be  present  when  the  order  was  issued, 
said  to  him,  '  O  Prince  of  the  BeHevers  !  God  forbid  that  thou  shouldst 
undertake  a  task  the  mere  idea' of  which  is  sufficient  to  make  a  man 
lose  his  wit.'     An-nassir  was  convinced. " 


254        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

and  in  order  that  the  faithful  might  be  encouraged 
to  follow  the  path  of  virtue,  by  the  reflection  that, 
delightful  as  were  those  pleasures,  they  were  still 
far  below  those  reserved  for  the  true  believer  in  the 
celestial  paradise.' "  But  his  rejoicing  soon  turns  to  a 
groan  as  he  describes  how  ^^  this  abode  of  contentment 
and  mirth  was  converted  (not  by  the  Christian  con- 
querors, but)  by  the  Berbers  into  a  place  of  desolation. 
There  is  no  God  but  God  the  Great,  the  Almighty ! " 

Abderrahman's  son,  Hakem  II.,  not  having  the  same 
interest  in  architecture  as  his  father,  occupied  himself 
in  collecting  a  noble  library.  His  agents  were  de- 
spatched to  Bagdad,  Damascus,  and  other  cities  of 
the  East  to  search  for  manuscripts,  which  were  either 
purchased  or  copied.  The  books  in  his  library  are 
said  to  have  amounted  to  four  hundred  thousand,  and 
they  were  not  only  owned  but  studied,  and  in  some 
cases  annotated,  by  him.  After  Hakem  there  were  no 
more  great  caliphs,  but  in  the  reign  of  his  son,  Hischam 
II.,  lived  the  Vizier  Almanzor,  greater  than  the  greatest 
of  the  caliphs.  He  too  added  to  the  architectural 
beauties  of  Cordova  by  building  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Azzahra  his  own  palace  Azzahir^i,  which  is  described 
as  still  more  gorgeous  than  the  caliph's  erection.  So 
splendid  was  this  more  than  imperial  palace  that 
Almanzor  is  said  to  have  felt  that  a  Nemesis  must 
fall  upon  it.  ''  He  was  one  day,"  says  Makkari, 
"sitting  regaling  his  eyes,  his  whole  soul  absorbed 
by  the  contemplation  of  the  beauties  surrounding  him, 
when  suddenly  tears  rolled  down  his  cheeks,  and  he 
exclaimed  in  deep  sorrow,  *0  Azzahira,  may  the 
Almighty    Lord    save   you ! '      And    Almanzor    wept 


THE  CORDOVAN  CALIPHATE.  255 

bitterly,  and  hid  his  face  with  both  his  hands.  Then 
one  of  his  favourites  said,  ''What  ails  thee,  O  Al- 
manzor?  What  is  the  meaning  of  words  which  thy 
lips  never  uttered  before  ?  "  ''  God  grant,"  said  Alman- 
zor,  ''  that  my  presentiments  do  not  come  true."  ^ 

Almanzor  is  an  eminent  example  of  a  Spanish 
Moslem,  both  in  his  grandeur  and  in  his  baseness, 
and  his  history  best  illustrates  the  relations  which 
existed  between  the  Christian  kingdoms  and  the 
haughty  Arab  occupants  of  Cordova.  Almanzor  be- 
gan life  as  a  student  of  the  University  of  Cordova, 
with  no  especial  prospects  or  opportunity  of  advance- 
ment. His  first  profession  was  that  of  a  letter-writer, 
which  in  the  East  has  always  been  held  in  respect, 
if  not  in  honour.  Brought  by  his  occupation  to  court, 
he  gained  a  position  there  by  flattery  and  bribes,  so 
that  he  became  known  to  the  Caliph  Hischam's  mother, 
Aurora.  By  her  patronage  he  became  a  judge  and 
a  commandant  in  the  civil  guard.  On  the  accession 
3f  Hischam  to  the  throne  one  of  the  conspiracies 
which  are  common  in  Oriental  palaces  broke  out. 
Aurora  called  in  Almanzor  to  crush  it,  which,  with 
the  aid  of  the  chamberlain,  Mushafy,  he  did.  He 
ivas  as  yet  only  a  civilian,  but  by  the  chamberlain's 
influence  he  was  nominated  on  two  occasions  to  lead 
:he  Saracen  troops  against  the  Christians.  Almanzor 
put  himself  under  the  tutelage  of  a  naval  officer  named 
Shalib,  and  succeeded  on  both  occasions  in  worsting 
;he  Christians.  Returning  with  a  great  reputation, 
le  contrived  to  get  himself  appointed  Governor  of 
Z^ordova  in  place  of  the  chamberlain's  son,  and  in  a 
^  Mokkari,  p.  224. 


256        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

very  short  time  he  was  able  to  arrest  Mushafy  himself 
and   have   him   thrown    into   prison   on   a   charge   of 
peculation.      Here  he  allowed   his   old   patron  to  lie 
in  a  state  bordering  on  starvation  for  five  years,  when, 
being   now   forgotten,    he   was   put   out  of  the  way. 
Almanzor  became  chamberlain,  and  ruled  the  kingdom 
as  the  grand-vizier  of  the  caliph.      An  attempt  was 
made  to  assassinate  him,  but  he  seized  the  conspirators 
and  had  them  crucified.     He  had  married  the  daughter 
of  Ghalib,  to  whom  he  owed  his  own  elevation  as  a 
soldier.     Ghalib  and  Ja'far  were  the  two  most  popular 
men  in  the  army,  and  might  be  his  rivals.     Almanzor 
detached   the  veteran    troops,   who   were   devoted   to 
Ghalib,  from  him,  and  soon  Ghalib  fell  in  battle,  and 
Ja'far  by  assassination.     Almanzor  was  now  first  in 
civil  and  military  affairs.     At  the  head  of  the  army 
he  gained  the  name  by  which  he  is  known  in  history, 
Almanzor— that  is,  the  victorious.     He  is  said  to  have 
fought  fifty  battles  and  never  to  have  been  defeated 
except  on  the  day  when  he  met  his  death.     His  wars 
were,   for  the  most   part,  with  the  Christians  of  the 
North,    against    whom    he    conducted    an    expedition 
generally  twice  in  the  year.     His  first  raid  was  against 
Castile ;    then  Simancas  and  Zamora  fell  before  him ; 
soon  Leon,  which  had  been  the  residence  of  the  Chris- 
tian kings  for  fifty  years,  was  captured,  and  Bermudo 
II.    had    to   retire   to    the   old    capital    Oviedo,    while 
Almanzor  razed  Leon  to  the  ground.     Astorga,  Sala- 
manca, even  Barcelona,  Coimbra,  Braga,  and  at  length 
Compostela,  were  reduced  by  him  and  left  in  ruins. 
Castile,   Leon,   Galicia,   and    Navarre    combined   their 
forces  to  resist  him,  but  they  were  utterly  routed  at  the 


THE  CORDOVAN  CALIPHATE.  257 

River  Tormes.  Leon,  Navarre,  and  Castile  again 
combined.  Almanzor  took  his  way  to  Navarre,  and 
met  the  Christian  forces  at  Calatanazor.  Here  for 
the  first  time  he  was  defeated.  Wounded  in  the  field, 
he  is  said  to  have  secured  the  retreat  of  his  army  and 
then  refused  to  live  as  a  vanquished  man.  In  the  year 
1002,  whether  from  his  wounds  or  from  sickness,  he 
died,  and  according  to  the  Spanish  chronicler  was 
''  buried  in  hell."  To  balance  his  craft  and  cruelty,  acts 
of  great  generosity  are  reported  of  Almanzor.  On  one 
occasion  having  caught  a  body  of  Christians  in  a  defile, 
on  their  refusing  to  surrender,  he  let  them  pass  unhurt. 
At  the  battle  of  Tormes,  when  the  victory  had  declared 
on  his  side,  finding  a  troop  of  Castilians  trying  to 
transport  the  dead  body  of  their  slain  sovereign  from 
the  field,  he  allowed  them  a  passage  through  his 
soldiers,  exclaiming,  ''Let  tlie  Christians  live  and 
bless  the  name  of  the  clement  and  merciful  God." 
Having  won  a  victory  in  Africa,  he  returned  his  thanks- 
giving by  giving  freedom  to  three  hundred  slaves  and 
fifteen  hundred  captives.  When  his  son  was  married 
he  gave  dowries  to  orphans  and  gifts  to  schools  and 
hospitals. 

In  Almanzor  the  last  great  Arab  passed  away.  His 
ambition  had  kept  the  caliph  in  the  harem  in  order 
that  he  might  himself  play  the  sovereign,  and  now 
there  was  no  one  to  take  his  place.  His  son  kept 
things  together  for  six  years,  but  after  that  time  the 
Arab  rule  gave  way  to  confusion  and  anarchy.  Men 
of  Ommiad  blood  still  nominally  held  sway  till  His- 
cham  III.  was  deposed  in  103 1,  but  the  glory  of  the 
dynasty  ended  with  Almanzor's  fife  in   1002.     Then 


258        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

followed  two  hundred  years  during  which  Moham- 
medan Spain  was  distracted  by  the  rivalries  of  the 
numberless  kingdoms  into  which  it  was  divided,  such 
as  Toledo,  Zaragoza,  Seville,  and  Valencia.  The 
royal  city  of  Cordova  was  captured  by  the  Moham- 
medan King  of  Seville  in  10/6,  and  in  1084  Alonzo 
VI.,  King  of  Leon,  recovered  Toledo. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

THE  MARTYRS  OF  CORDOVA. 

On  the  conquest  of  Spain,  the  Moslems,  in  accordance 
with  their  law  and  custom,  offered  Islam,  tribute, 
or  the  sword  to  their  vanquished  foes.  We  have 
seen  how  they  that  chose  the  sword  gathered  at  first 
in  very  small  numbers  in  the  Asturian  Mountains,  and 
spread  from  the  Cave  of  Covadonga  and  the  valley 
of  Cangas  to  Oviedo  and  Leon,  and  thence  through 
Galicia,  Portugal,  and  Castile ;  while  smaller  bodies 
maintained  themselves  in  Navarre,  Aragon,  and 
Catalonia.  The  natural  consequence  of  the  relation 
in  which  these  men  found  themselves  with  their 
Mohammedan  enemies  was  to  intensify  their  hatred 
of  everything  belonging  to  the  Moslem  faith,  and  to 
cause  them  to  cling  to  all  that  distinguished  Christian 
faith  and  practice  with  a  determination  which  might 
easily  degenerate  into  fanaticism  and  superstition. 
Those  Christians  that  remained  behind  in  the  parts 
of  the  country  subjected  to  the  Arabs  were  in  a  very 
different  position.  They  were  brought  into  daily  and 
hourly  contact  with  men  often  of  cultured  and  chival- 
rous mind,  which  prevented  them  from  regarding 
Mohammedanism  with  the  bitter  hatred  entertained 
for  it  by  the  Christians  of  the  North.     They  were  not 

259  g 


26o        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

persecuted,    which    would    have    aroused    their    an- 
tagonism and  pride,  but  they  found  themselves  looked 
down  upon  with  a  quiet  contempt  and  refused  a  posi- 
tion of  equality  with  the  ruhng  caste;  they  had  to 
pay  tribute  to    support   an   alien    race   and    religion; 
the  Jews,  whom  they  had  trampled  upon  in  the  days 
of  their  prosperity,  now  stood  higher  in  position  than 
themselves,  and  the  wealthier  classes  from  day  to  day 
lost    their   slaves,   who   had    only   to   pronounce   the 
formula,  ''  There  is  but  one  God,  and  Mohammed  is 
His  prophet,"  to  deliver  themselves  from  bondage  and 
raise  themselves  to  an  equality  with  their  old  masters, 
or  a   superiority  to   them.     It   was   a    temptation   to 
themselves,  to  pronounce  the  talismanic  formula,  after 
which   the  prizes  of  the  State  were  opened  to  them 
without  any  close  inquisition  into  their  private  senti- 
ments.     Many  indifferent    Christians  passed   over  in 
this  way  to  the  dominant  religion,  as  is  found  always 
to  be  the  case  in  countries  under  Mohammedan  rule. 
There  were   others  who  would    not    so  violate   their 
conscience  or  shame  their  Christian  profession,  who 
yet  grew  to  be  on  intimate  terms  with  their  Moslem 
neighbours,  and   came  to  regard   the  differences   be- 
tween them  less  and  less  as  of  vital  importance.    Inter- 
marriages took  place  between  the  two  races,  begin- 
ning almost  immediately  after  the  battle  of  Guadalete, 
soon  after  which   Roderic's   widow,  Egilona,  married 
Abdul-aziz,    the   son    of  Musa.     The   Arabian   emirs 
retained  in  their  hands  the  right  of  veto  on  episcopal 
elections,  which  had  previously  been  exercised  by  the 
Gothic  kings,  while  at  the  same  time  they  threw  con- 
siderable secular  power  into  the  hands  of  such  bishops 


THE  MARTYRS  OF  CORDOVA.  261 

as  were  appointed,  whom  they  made  their  agents 
and  officers  in  governing  the  Christians.  Bishops  so 
nominated  and  so  treated  were  not  likely  to  play  the 
part  of  martyrs  or  confessors,  or  to  be  very  vigilant 
in  preserving  the  zeal  of  their  flocks  at  boiling-pitch. 
Sindered,  who  had  been  nominated  Primate  of  Toledo 
by  Witiza,  seems  to  have  been  succeeded,  on  Roderic  s 
nomination,  by  Urban;  after  whom  came  Sunifred,  A.D. 
738;  Concordias,  A.D.  758;  Cixila,  A.D.  774;  Elipan- 
dus,  A.D.  782.  Cixila  occupied  himself  in  writing  the 
legendary  story,  full  of  miraculous  events,  which  is 
called  a  *'  Life  of  Ildefonso,"  whence  arose  the  extra- 
ordinary reputation  enjoyed  by  Ildefonso  for  the  next 
three  centuries.  Elipandus'  interest  seems  to  have 
been  mainly  fixed  on  points  of  speculative  theology, 
as  the  opponent  of  Migetianism  and  the  supporter  of 
Adoptionism;  and  during  this  time  we  may  easily 
believe  that  zeal  more  and  more  died  out  from  the 
daily  life  of  the  Christians  interspersed  among  the 
Moors. 

The  place  where  there  was  the  greatest  danger  of 
the  Christians  forgetting  their  faith  and  sinking  down 
into  practical  indifference  was  Cordova,  where  their 
eyes  were  dazzled  by  the  splendour  of  Mohammedan 
magnificence,  while  Christian  worship  was  confined 
to  such  churches  as  were  in  existence  at  the  time  of 
the  conquest,  no  new  edifices,,  being  allowed  to  be 
constructed.  The  Mohammedans  exhibited  an  air  of 
contemptuous  superiority,  which  was  not  enough  to 
arouse  antagonism,  but  was  sufficient  to  be  galling. 
They  went  into  their  churches  (whereas  no  Christian 
might  enter  a  mosque)  and  ridiculed  the  ceremonies 


262        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

which  they  saw  but  did  not  understand.^  The  Chris- 
tians did  not  dare  to  retaliate,  and  for  the  most  part 
did  not  wish  to  do  so.  But  the  general  apathy  caused 
a  reaction.  Earnest  Christians  looked  on  with  alarm 
amounting  to  terror  as  they  saw  their  young  students 
at  the  University  examining  into  the  religion  and  philo- 
sophy of  the  Mohammedans,  ^'  not  in  order  to  refute 
their  errors,  but  on  account  of  their  elegance  of  diction 
and  clearness  of  expression,  while  they  neglected  Chris- 
tian writings."  ^  They  saw  them  "  taking  delight  in 
Arab  poetry  and  their  thousand  stories."  ^  They  saw 
them  submitting  to  circumcision  as  a  matter  in  itself 
indifferent.*      ''Who  is  there,"  cries  Alvar  in  despair, 

^  Ibii  Shoheyd  thus  describes  what  he  saw  : — "  I  once  entered  at 
night  into  the  principal  Christian  church.  I  found  it  all  strewn  with 
green  branches  of  myrtle  and  planted  with  cypress-trees.  The  noise  of 
the  thundering  bells  resounded  in  my  ears ;  the  glare  of  the  innumer- 
able lamps  dazzled  my  eyes ;  the  priests,  decked  in  rich  silken  robes 
of  gay  and  fanciful  colours  and  girt  with  girdle-cords,  advanced  to 
adore  Jesus.  Every  one  of  those  present  had  banished  mirth  from  his 
countenance  and  expelled  from  his  mind  all  agreeable  ideas ;  and  if 
they  directed  their  steps  towards  the  marble  font,  it  was  merely  to  take 
sips  of  water  with  the  hollow  of  their  hands.  The  priest  then  rose  and 
stood  among  them,  and  taking  the  wine-cup  in  his  liands  prepared  to 
consecrate  it :  he  aj^plied  to  the  liquor  his  parched  lips — lips  as  dark  as 
the  dusky  lips  of  a  beautiful  maid ;  the  fragrancy  of  its  contents  cap- 
tivated his  senses,  but  when  he  had  tasted  the  delicious  liquor  the 
sweetness  and  flavour  seemed  to  overpower  him.  ...  By  the  Lord 
of  Mercy  !  this  mansion  of  God  is  pervaded  with  the  smell  of  unfer- 
mented  red  liquor,  so  pleasant  to  the  youth  1  It  was  to  a  girl  that 
their  prayers  were  addressed  ;  it  was  for  her  that  they  put  on  their  gay 
tunics,  instead  of  humiliating  themselves  before  the  Almighty  I  .  .  . 
The  priests,  wishing  us  to  stay  long  among  them,  began  to  sing  round 
us  with  their  books  in  their  hands  ;  every  wretch  presented  us  the  palm 
of  his  withered  hand  (with  the  holy  water),  but  they  were  even  like 
the  bat,  whose  safety  consists  in  his  hatred  for  light ;  offering  us  every 
attraction  that  their  drinking  of  new  wine  or  their  eating  of  swine's 
flesh  could  afford." — Makkari,  B.  iii.  ch.  4. 

-  Alvar,  Indiculus  Luminosus,  c.  35. 

3  Ibid.  4  Ibid. 


THE  MARTYRS  OF  CORDOVA.  263 

"among  our  faithful  laity  who  reads  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures or  takes  a  look  at  the  works  of  any  doctors  that 
are  written  in  Latin  ?  Who  loves  the  Gospels,  the 
Prophets,  the  Apostles  ?  Are  not  all  our  young  Chris- 
tians, with  set  faces  and  eloquent  tongues,  and  refine- 
ment of  dress  and  gesture,  skilled  in  heathen  learning, 
lifted  into  the  fields  of  Arabian  eloquence,  eagerly 
turning  over  the  pages  of  the  Chaldeans,  earnestly 
reading  them,  discussing  them  with  the  greatest  ardour, 
holding  meetings  with  the  greatest  interest  in  order  to 
praise  and  propagate  them,  ignoring  the  beauty  of  the 
Church,  and  despising  the  Church's  streams,  which 
flow  from  Paradise,  as  poor  things  ?  Oh,  grief !  Chris- 
tians do  not  know  their  own  tongue,  Latins  cannot 
understand  their  own  language,  so  that  out  of  the 
whole  company  of  Christ  scarcely  one  in  a  thousand 
can  be  found  who  could  intelligibly  address  a  letter 
to  his  brother,  while  innumerable  crowds  are  found 
who  can  most  learnedly  explain  the  beautiful  order 
of  Chaldean  words,  and  can  add  the  final  flourish  which 
their  language  requires  with  greater  skill  and  beauty 
than  the  heathen  themselves."  ^  It  was,  in  truth,  no 
slight  danger  that  was  run  by  Christian  students  in 
the  tolerant  and  magnificent  University  of  Cordova. 
A  sluggish  indifierence  prevailed  among  the  higher 
officials  in  the  hierarchy.  The  metropolitan  bishop, 
Reccafred  of  Seville,  was  a  temporiser.  A  few  years 
later  the  Bishop  of  Malaga  was  a  persecutor  of  his 
co-religionists;  but  there  rose  up  a  school  which  set 
itself  with  fixed  purpose  to  counteract  the  prevailing 
laxity,  even  at  the  cost  of  martyrdom  at  the  hands 

^  Alvar,  Indicjilus  Ltiminostis,  c.  35. 


264        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

of  their  Mohammedan  masters.  The  leader  of  this 
school  seems  to  have  been  the  Abbot  Speraindeo/ 
who  gathered  round  him  some  earnest  spirits,  chief 
among  whom  were  Eulogius  and  Alvar,  a  doctor 
named  Vincent,  a  writer  named  Basilisque,  a  pres- 
byter named  Leovigild,  and  an  archpriest  named 
Cyprian,  followed  shortly  afterwards  by  the  Abbot 
Samson.  Speraindeo  was  a  deep  student  of  Holy 
Scripture,  in  which  he  gave  lectures ;  he  wrote  a  trea- 
tise against  Mohammedanism,  the  trenchant  character 
of  which  may  be  gathered  from  the  extracts  preserved 
to  us  by  Eulogius,  and  by  a  similar  work  written  by 
his  other  pupil,  Alvar.  He  also  wrote  an  account  of 
the  martyrdom  of  John  and  Adolphus  of  Seville,  put 
to  death  in  824,  whose  example  he  held  up  as  an 
encouragement  to  weak  Christians  throughout  Spain. 
Another  of  his  writings  was  a  theological  work  written 
at  Alvar's  request  against  some  heresies  that  were 
infesting  the  Church.  He  lived  to  an  old  age,  and 
died  about  the  year  850. 

The  school  of  which  Speraindeo  was  the  chief 
founder  gathered  into  its  ranks  all  the  more  earnest 
believers  in  Cordova,  whether  clerical  or  lay.  It  is  not 
too  much  to  say  that  it  saved  the  Christian  faith  in 
the  Moorish  capital ;  but  it  could  not  do  this  without 
some  cost.  Constituted  as  men's  minds  are,  an  ardent 
zeal  for  Christianity  could  not  be  separated  from  a 
hatred  of  Mohammedanism.  If  religious  faith  was  to 
be  fanned  into  enthusiasm,  it  could  not  always  be 
restrained  within  the  limits  of  prudence.  A  sharper 
feeling  of  antagonism  sprang  up  between  the  Arab 
'  Thai  is,  "  Hope-in-God." 


THE  MARTYRS  OF  CORDOVA.  265 

and  Spanish  population.  Moslem  laws,  which  do  not 
profess  to  set  Christians  on  an  equality  with  the 
professors  of  Islam,  and  the  haughty  bearing  of  the 
Mohammedan,  which  leads  him  to  insult  and  shrink 
with  disgust  from  all  but  his  co-religionists,  began 
to  be  felt  as  an  intolerable  burden  by  the  now  excited 
Christians.  As  the  latter  carried  their  dead  to  the 
grave  the  Moors  cursed  them  aloud  and  cast  stones 
at  the  clergy.  When  a  priest  was  found  in  the  street 
there  was  danger  of  his  being  hustled  and  insulted, 
if  not  stoned.  When  the  bell  sounded  for  church 
"  they  uttered  cries  of  derision  and  contempt,  wagging 
their  heads,  reiterating  intolerable  insults,  assailing 
and  mocking  the  whole  flock  of  the  Lord  Christ,  with- 
out respect  to  sex  or  age,  with  a  thousand  different 
kinds  of  insult."  ^  They  went  further.  There  was 
a  priest  named  Perfectus  who  had  gone  out  of  his 
house  and  was  occupying  himself  in  the  everyday 
business  of  life.  The  Moors  surrounded  him  and 
demanded  why  he  was  not  a  believer.  He  refused 
to  answer,  knowing  that  his  reply  might  make  him 
liable  to  capital  punishment.  When  they  continued 
urging  him,  he  said  that  he  could  reply  well  enough 
if  they  would  give  him  a  promise,  confirmed  by  oath, 
that  he  should  not  be  harmed  by  what  he  said.  They 
accepted  his  condition,  and  then  he  denounced  Mo- 
hammed as  a  man  of  profligate  life.  His  hearers 
were  lashed  to  fury,  but,  for  their  oath's  sake,  they 
let  him  go  unhurt.  But  a  short  time  afterwards 
they  again  fell  in  with  him,  and  regarding  their  oath 
as   no  longer    binding,  they    seized  him    and    carried 

^  Alvru',  c.  vi. 


266        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

him  to  the  kadi,  declaring  that  he  was  trying  to 
overthrow  their  faith  and  had  cursed  the  prophet. 
Perfectus,  taken  aback  and  terrified,  denied  that  he 
had  said  anything  of  the  kind,  and  he  was  remitted 
to  prison  for  further  examination.  Here  he  repented 
of  his  previous  weakness  and  acknowledged  his  words, 
and  repeated  them,  on  which  he  was  immediately 
beheaded. 

The  matter  rested  for  a  year ;  then  the  mob  seized 
a  Christian  named  John,  crying  that  he  had  been 
heard  often  to  utter  the  name  of  the  prophet  in  a 
derisive  tone.  John  was  a  quick-tempered  man  and 
liad  a  caustic  wit ;  he  answered  hastily,  "  Accursed 
be  he  who  wants  to  utter  the  name  of  your  prophet 
at  all."  At  these  words  a  great  tumult  was  raised ; 
a  crowd  gathered  like  a  swarm  of  bees,  and  dragged 
him  with  blows  before  the  kadz.  His  sentence  was 
four  hundred  blows,  while  a  proclamation  was  made 
in  all  the  Christian  churches,  '*  This  is  what  the  man 
has  to  suffer  who  does  anything  to  the  dishonour  of 
the  prophet  of  God."  ^ 

In  these  two  cases  the  aggression  was  with  the 
Mohammedan  party,  and  we  cannot  be  surprised  at 
the  indignation  expressed  by  Alvar :  ''  Now,  be  just 
judges  and  give  an  impartial  sentence.  I  ask  with 
whom  did  this  persecution  arise  ?  Is  it  not  plain 
that  they  were  the  beginners  of  mischief  who  first 
made  a  promise  which  then  they  did  not  keep  ?  As 
to  audacity  or  obstinacy  with  which  you  charge  us 
when  you  bring  us  before  the  judge,  this  priest  had 
them   not ;    he  was   a  timid   man,  and  he  proceeded 

*  Alvar,  c.  v. 


THE  MARTYRS  OF  CORDOVA.  267 

timidly  to  the  battle.  It  was  diabolic  zeal  which 
brought  about  his  death — the  disciples  of  Antichrist 
who  caused  his  passion.  Can  it  be  concealed  that  it 
was  with  them  that  the  persecution  arose  and  com- 
menced, was  carried  on  and  completed  ?  ...  Is  any 
one  so  possessed  by  error,  so  steeped  in  iniquity, 
as  to  deny  that  this  is  persecution  ?  What  can  be 
greater  persecution  than  when  men  are  not  allowed 
to  say  with  their  mouth  what  they  have  good  reason 
for  believing  in  their  heart  ?  Yes,  there  is  the  public 
law,  there  is  the  legal  ordinance  which  runs  through- 
out their  whole  realm,  that  any  one  who  blasphemes 
Islam  should  be  flogged,  and  any  one  who  strikes  a 
Mohammedan  should  be  put  to  death.  Day  and  night 
they  curse  the  Lord,  while  they  extol  the  prophet, 
who  is  shameless,  perjured,  furious,  and  unjust.  Ah ! 
and  we  not  only  accept  the  poison  offered  to  us  with 
a  merry  heart  and  a  ready  hand,  but,  what  is  worse, 
we  go  against  those  who  have  zeal  for  God  like  Elijah, 
and  make  friendship  with  the  enemies  of  God  most 
high,  and  to  please  them  we  speak  evil  of  our  own 
faith.  Every  day  we  are  overwhelmed  with  insults 
and  a  thousand  contumelies,  and  then  we  say  that 
there  is  no  persecution."  ^ 

When  the  temper  of  men's  minds  was  thus  in- 
flamed some  catastrophe  could  hardly  fail  to  be  pro- 
duced. It  was  indeed  a  hopeless  matter  for  the  few 
Christians  whose  feelings  were  thus  roused  to  rise  in 
insurrection  against  the  mass  of  the  citizens  in  the 
midst  of  whom  they  were  living  scattered  in  the 
capital  where  the  mighty  Ommiad  dynasty  was  hold- 

^  Alvar,  cc.  iv.,  vi. 


268        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

ing  its  splendid  court ;  but  if  they  could  not  overcome 
their  opponents,  they  could  die  in  the  cause  of  their 
insulted  master.  They  forgot  the  old  ecclesiastical 
rule  laid  down  in  their  own  Council  of  Elvira,  and 
founded  upon  the  words  of  our  Lord,  that  none  were 
to  offer  themselves  voluntarily  for  martyrdom.  Moved 
at  once  by  religious  enthusiasm,  racial  hatred,  and 
present  anger,  men  and  women  came  forward  and 
denounced  Islam  in  the  bitterest  terms  before  the 
people  and  before  the  kadi,  knowing  well,  and  re- 
joicing to  know,  that  the  legal  penalty  was  death. 
The  first  of  these  voluntary  martyrs  was  a  monk 
named  Isaac,  who,  going  straight  to  the  kadt,  declared 
that  he  too  had  adopted  all  that  Perfectus  and  John 
had  said,  adding  his  own  to  their  denunciations  of 
Mohammed.  *'  What  have  you  to  blame  in  that  ?  " 
cries  Alvar.  '^  I  have  shown  that  the  persecution 
began  with  the  heathen.  It  was  religious  zeal,  not 
personal  interest,  which  has  moved  our  men  !  What 
have  you  to  blame  ?  Tell  me !  They  saw  the  battle 
begun;  they  put  on  the  breastplate  of  faith  and 
joined  the  noble  struggle  with  hm-ried  step,  after  they 
had  seen  one  comrade  slain  and  another  wounded, 
and  they  charged  the  enemy,  seeking  tlie  palm  of 
glory.  You  say  that  some  are  too  weak  to  take  this 
course,  and  that  brave  men  should  hold  back  lest 
feeble  men  should  be  terrified.  If  you  are  weak, 
brainless,  cowardly,  sit  still  and  do  not  fight ;  sit 
still  and  await  results,  and  learn  to  bridle  your  tongue 
in  silence ;  but  if  you  are  strong,  if  you  are  brave,  ii 
you  are  firm,  if  you  can  fight  God's  battle  against  His 
enemies,  hurl  your  spear,  throw  your  javelin.     Why 


THE  MARTYRS  OF  CORDOVA.  269 

do  you  pay  no  respect  to  fiery  purpose,  astonishing 
confidence;  glorious  firmness,  zeal  for  the  Catholic 
faith  and  rehgion  ?  .  .  .  Have  not  those  men  who 
seem  to  be  pillars  or  are  supposed  to  be  rocks  of 
the  Church,  who  are  regarded  as  elect,  have  not  they 
gone,  without  compulsion,  before  the  kadi  and  spoken 
ill  of  God's  martyrs  ?  Have  not  shepherds  of  Christ, 
doctors  of  the  Church,  bishops,  abbots,  presbyters, 
nobles,  and  officers  openly  called  them  heretics  ?  It 
is  true  that  they  spoke  ill  of  the  false  prophet;  we 
speak  ill  of  Christ's  worshippers.  T/iej/  were  brave 
and  faced  the  devil ;  we  are  proud,  but  it  is  against 
the  Lord.  T/iej'  were  haughty  in  the  presence  of  an 
earthly  king ;  we  in  the  presence  of  the  Eternal  King. 
Tkej/  spoke  with  their  mouth  what  they  held  in  their 
heart;  we  keep  one  thing  in  our  heart  and  profess 
another  with  our  mouth.  IViej/  were  truthful  con- 
fessors and  witnesses ;  we,  alas  me !  are  deceitful 
feigners.  Scandals  always  arise  to  the  carnal  and 
the  learned  in  the  days  of  martyrdom.  That  fight 
of  our  Church,  blessed  Isidore,  says,  aptly  using 
the  illustration  of  the  star  Orion,  '  Orion,'  says  he, 
'  appears  in  the  sky  in  the  season  of  winter,  and 
martyrs  come  forward  in  the  Church  in  time  of  per- 
secution.' As  Orion  proceeds,  earth  and  sea  are 
disturbed  by  storms,  and  when  martyrs  arise  the 
hearts  of  worldly  men,  and  even  of  the  faithful,  are 
stricken."  ^ 

With  such  fiery  teachers  as  Alvar  and  Eulogius  it 
is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  list  of  martyrs  is  a 
long  one.     Isaac's  fate  was  singularly  unprovoked  by 

^  Alvar,  xii.  15. 


270        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN, 

the  Moslem.  He  went  before  the  kadi  as  a  would-be 
proselyte  to  Islam,  and  asked  for  an  explanation  of 
its  doctrines.  The  kadi  gravely  replied  that  the 
author  of  the  true  faith  was  Mohammed,  who,  having 
been  taught  by  the  archangel  Gabriel,  and  having 
become  the  prophet  of  God,  published  to  the  world 
the  Law  and  revealed  Paradise  and  Heaven.  "  He 
is  a  false  prophet,"  burst  in  Isaac ;  "  he  has  lied  and 
led  you  astray,  so  may  God  curse  him !  Filled  with 
iniquity,  he  has  perverted  innumerable  souls,  and  cast 
them  into  the  pit  where  he  will  everlastingly  pay  the 
penalty  of  his  crimes  for  having  given  his  followers 
to  drink  of  the  cup  of  perdition,  full  as  he  is  himself 
of  the  spirit  and  deeds  of  the  devil.  How  is  it  that 
you,  who  think  yourselves  wise  men,  do  not  deliver 
yourselves  from  like  peril  ?  How  is  it  that  you  do 
not  renounce  his  pestilent  and  perverse  doctrines  and 
embrace  the  perfect  salvation  of  the  Christian  reli- 
gion ? "  The  kadi  burst  into  tears  of  rage  and 
struck  him  on  the  face,  declaring  that  he  was  either 
drunk  or  mad.  ^'  I  am  neither  drunk  nor  mad,"  said 
Isaac,  ^'but  I  am  zealous  for  righteousness,  which 
neither  you  nor  your  prophet  know,  and  therefore  I 
declare  to  you  the  truth — ^  Blessed  are  they  who 
are  persecuted  for  righteousness'  sake,  for  theirs  is  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.' "  The  kddi  referred  the  case  to 
the  sultan,  who  ordered  Isaac  to  be  *)eheaded.  His 
body  was  fastened  to  a  stake  erected  on  the  banks 
of  the  river  in  the  sight  of  all  the  town,  in  order  to 
strike  terror  into  the  hearts  of  the  Christian  revilers 
of  the  prophet.  The  result  was  contrary  to  that 
which   was  expected.     Two  days  after  Isaac's  death, 


THE  MARTYRS  OF  CORDOVA.  271 

on  Friday,  June  5,  A.D.  851,  Sancho,  a  young  man 
who  had  been  made  a  prisoner  in  France,  and  was 
being  trained  for  one  of  the  sultan's  bodyguard  of 
renegades,  made  confession,  hke  Isaac,  and  suffered 
the  same  fate,  his  body  being  set  next  to  Isaac's.  On 
Sunday  the  /th,  immediately  after  Mass,  a  priest  be- 
longing to  Isaac's  Monastery  of  Tabanos,  had  a  vision 
of  a  most  beautiful  young  man,  and  was  assured  that 
as  Abraham  had  offered  his  son  Isaac,  so  now  this 
Isaac  had  offered  a  sacrifice  for  his  brethren.  The 
same  day  three  monks  of  Cordova,  Sabinian,  Haben- 
tius,  and  Jeremiah,  were  beheaded  and  staked  in 
company  with  Peter  and  Wistremund  of  Ecija  and 
Walabonsus  of  Ilipa  or  Elepla.  Thus  there  were 
eight  bodies  standing  in  a  ghastly  row  along  the 
bank  of  the  river,  and  one  of  them  had  been  there 
since  Wednesday  the  3rd,  and  another  since  Friday 
the  5th.  They  remained  there  till  Friday  the  12th, 
and  that  in  the  south  of  Spain  in  the  month  of 
June  ;  then  they  were  burnt  and  their  ashes  thrown 
into  the  Guadalquivir.  About  a  month  later  Sise- 
nand  of  Beja,  and,  persuaded  by  him,  Paul,  a  deacon 
of  S.  Zoilus,  Cordova,  and  Theodomir,  a  monk  of 
Carmona,  offered  themselves  for  martyrdom,  and 
were  beheaded.  Flora's  story  is  specially  touching, 
owing  to  the  fatherly  affection  and  spiritual  adoration 
borne  to  her  by  Eulogius,  who,  nevertheless,  con- 
firmed her  in  her  resolution  to  die.  Early  converted 
to  Christianity — she  was  the  daughter  of  a  Moslem 
father — she  deserted  her  home  to  escape  the  insults 
she  there  suffered.  Compelled  to  return  to  it  she 
resisted   her   brother's   persuasion,  and   w^as   by   him 


2^2        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

brought  before  the  l:adl  and  beaten.  Continuing  to 
attend  the  worship  of  the  Christian  church,  she  met 
Maria,  sister  of  the  martyr  Walabonsus,  and  together 
the  two  maidens  determined  to  denounce  Mohammed 
and  die.  The  kadi  before  whom  they  appeared  for 
this  purpose  sent  them  to  prison.  In  prison  they 
found  the  brave  priest  Eulogius,  who  had  been  sent 
thither  by  his  time-serving  metropolitan,  Reccafred 
of  Seville,  on  account  of  the  encouragement  given 
by  him  to  the  martyrs'  devotion  of  themselves  to 
death.  In  a  prison  of  the  ninth  century  the  inmates 
were  merely  kept  safe  by  their  jailers  in  a  common 
receptacle  of  misery,  and  no  attempt  was  made  of 
separating  one  prisoner  from  another.  Eulogius  had 
free  access  to  all  that  were  incarcerated,  and  he 
employed  himself  in  encouraging  the  two  girls  in 
their  resolve,  all  the  while  feeling  a  yearning  affec- 
tion and  chivalrous  devotion  to  "  his  lady,"  Flora, 
whose  purity  and  piety  made  him  ready  to  kiss  the 
ground  beneath  her  feet.  Flora  and  Maria  were 
beheaded  November  24,  A.D.  851.  That  year  pro- 
duced thirteen  martyrs.  The  next  year  began  with 
the  death  of  a  priest,  Gumesind,  and  a  monk  called 
Sei-vus  Dei  (January  13,  A.D.  852).  Then  came  repre- 
sentatives of  the  large  class  of  Christians  who  had 
hitherto  not  thought  it  shame  to  pretend,  for  worldly 
purposes,  to  be  Moslems  and  go  under  the  name  of 
Cristianos  ocultos.  Aurelius  and  his  wife  Sabigotho  or 
Nathalia,  and  Felix  and  his  wife  Liliosa,  belonged  to 
this  class.  All  four  of  them  felt  a  necessity  laid  upon 
them  to  confess  their  faith,  which,  as  they  would  be 
regarded  as  renegades,  meant  to  die  for  it.     Aurelius 


THE  MARTYRS  OF  CORDOVA.  273 

and  Sabigotho  committed  their  children  (two  girls)  to 
the  care  of  the  Christian  Church,  and  all  four  dis- 
tributed their  goods  to  the  poor.  At  this  moment 
they  were  joined  by  George,  a  monk  of  S.  Sabbas, 
near  Jerusalem,  who  had  been  sent  by  his  monastery 
to  Africa  for  the  purpose  of  gathering  alms,  and  from 
■Africa  had  passed  across  to  Cordova.  The  five  en- 
thusiasts met  in  the  house  of  Aurelius  for  prayer,  and 
then  solemnly  took  counsel  how  they  should  devote 
themselves  to  death.  The  plan  they  determined  on 
was  this.  The  two  women,  Sabigotho  and  Lihosa, 
who,  as  Moslems,  had  hitherto  never  appeared  in 
public  without  the  yashmak  or  covering  for  the  face, 
ran  through  the  streets  to  the  Christian  church  with 
their  heads  uncovered  and  their  faces  unveiled.  The 
Moslem  authorities  sent  to  the  two  husbands  to 
inquire  what  was  the  meaning  of  the  strange  act 
performed  by  their  wives.  They  replied,  "  It  is  a 
Christian  custom  to  visit  churches  and  to  worship  at 
the  tomb  of  the  martyrs,  and  as  we  are  Christians, 
we  show  our  faith  in  Christ  not  only  in  words  but 
in  deeds."  News  of  the  apostasy  was  carried  to  the 
kadif  and  he  sent  men  to  seize  the  four  renegades. 
They  were  found  in  Aurelius'  house,  and  set  off  joy- 
fully for  their  doom.  George  was  with  them  in  the 
house,  but  the  officers  had  no  order  to  arrest  him, 
and  would  have  left  him  behind.  The  monk  was  in 
despair,  and  threw  himself  upon  them  with  words  of 
reviling :  "  How  dare  you  thus  treat  the  faithful,  seek* 
ing  to  pervert  them  to  superstition  ?  Can  you  not 
go  to  hell  by  yourselves  for  not  holding  the  true 
faith   without   our  accompanying  you  ?      Go  thither, 


274        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

you  and  your  false  prophet,  for  the  light  of  our  holy 
religion  has  neither  art  nor  part  with  your  darkness." 
The  officers  turned  upon  the  intruder  with  blows  and 
kicks,    and   carried   him   with    the   others   before   the 
kadz.     The  kadi  treated  the  accused  with  great  mild- 
ness— "Why  would  they  lose  not  only  the   present 
life  and  its  pleasures,  but  also  the  enjoyments  promised 
hereafter  ?  "     They  answered  that  nothing  that  could 
be  offered  them  was  to  be  compared  with  the  happi- 
ness that  they  hoped  to  enjoy  through  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ,  and   that  they  abhorred   and   rejected  all  that 
separated  them  from  Him  who  was  their  Good.     The 
kadi  sent  them  to  prison,  where  they  were  kept  for  five 
days,  which  appeared  long  to  them,  so  anxious  were 
they  for  the  consummation    of  their   hopes.      Offers 
of  honours    and  riches   were    made    to   them  if  they 
would    recant,    and    on    their    scornful    refusal,    their 
execution  was  ordered.     But  George  was  not  guilty 
of  apostasy  from  Mohammedanism,  and  the  authorities 
had  not  heard  him   blaspheme   Mohammed;    he   was 
therefore   granted   his   liberty.      ''What!"    cried   the 
monk ;  ''  do  you  think,  then,  that  I  am  a  follower  of 
your  false  prophet?      Nay;   I   recognise  him  as  the 
minister  of  Antichrist,  deluded  by  Satan  in  the  form 
of  an  angel,  perverted  and  a  perverter ;  not  only  gone 
to  hell  himself,  but  taking  you  there  too."     So  FeHx, 
George,    Liliosa,    Aurelius,    and    Sabigotho   were    be- 
headed together  on  July  27,  852.      The   bodies  were 
exposed  for  three  days,  and  then  carried  away  by  the 
Christians  for  burial.     George  and  Aurelius  were  laid 
in  the  church  of  the   Monastery  of  Pinamelar,   near 
Cordova;  but,  by  mistake,  Sabigotho's  head  was  de- 


THE  MARTYRS  OF  CORDOVA.  275 

posited  there  with  her  husband's  headless  body,  while 
her  body  was  laid  in  the  Church  of  S.  Faustus.  Six 
years  later  the  remains  were  translated  to  Paris,  as 
will  be  seen  presently. 

Next  month  two  monks,  Christopher  of  Cordova  and 
Leovigild  of  Granada,  offered  themselves  for  martyr- 
dom, and  were  beheaded.  The  following  month  two 
young  students,  Emila,  a  deacon,  and  Jeremiah,  came 
forward.  Being  well  acquainted  with  Arabic,  we  are 
told  that,  on  presenting  themselves  before  the  kadiy 
^'they  said  so  much  about  the  Mohammedan  super- 
stitions that  all  that  the  Moors  had  previously  heard 
from  the  martyrs  against  the  false  prophet  seemed  as 
nothing  compared  with  what  they  said."  ^  They  were 
beheaded  on  September  5,  and  their  bodies  fastened 
to  stakes  on  the  river's  bank.  While  they  were  still 
in  prison,  two  Christian  eunuchs,  one  from  Elvira,  the 
other  from  the  East,  made  their  way  into  a  mosque — 
a  thing  forbidden  to  Christians — and  with  loud  voices 
denounced  the  superstition  of  the  worshippers.  They 
were  at  once  seized,  and  after  their  hands  and  feet 
had  been  cut  off,  they  were  beheaded  and  their  bodies 
set  up  with  those  of  Christopher  and  Leovigild  on  the 
river's  side,  where  they  were  soon  afterwards  burnt. 
It  is  said  that  Abderrahman,  seeing  the  four  bodies 
exposed,  angrily  desired  that  they  should  be  burnt, 
and  while  giving  the  order  was  struck  with  apoplexy, 
whereby  "  his  soul  was  dismissed  to  burn  in  hell,  and 
he  left  the  ashes  of  the  saints  to  be  gathered  together 
by  the  faithful  and  reverently  stored  in  holy  places."  ^ 
In  the  year  852  there  were  eleven  martyrdoms. 

^  Esp.  Sagr.,  x.  405.  ^  Ibid.,  406. 

T 


276        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

Mohammed,  wlio  succeeded  Abderrahman  as  sultan, 
was  a  man  of  mucli  fiercer  nature  than  his  father, 
and  at  first  he  seems,  by  his  tlireat  of  a  general 
massacre,  to  have  struck  terror  even  into  the  seekers 
after  martyrdom.  None  offered  themselves  to  death 
for  six  months,  but  at  the  end  of  that  time,  on  June  13, 
853,  Fandila  of  Guadix,  and  next  day  Anastasius  of 
Cordova  and  Felix  of  Alcala,  reviled  Mohammedanism 
before  the  ^adi  and  were  beheaded.  The  same  day 
a  nun  named  Digna  (Worthy),  who  for  humility's  sake 
begged  to  be  always  addressed  as  Indigna  (Unworthy), 
left  her  monastery,  and  going  to  the  kadi,  asked  why 
he  had  taken  tlie  life  of  the  preachers  of  the  truth. 
''  Is  it  because  we  worship  the  Holy  Trinity,  Father, 
Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  and  confess  that  there  is  one 
true  God,  and  abhor  everything  contrary  to  the  truth?" 
The  kadi  ordered  her  at  once  for  execution,  and  the 
four  bodies  were  exposed  on  stakes,  and  then  burnt 
and  the  ashes  thrown  into  the  Guadalquivir. 

The  next  martyr  was  likewise  a  nun,  Columba. 
She  belonged  to  a  noble  family  of  Cordova,  and  was 
persuaded  by  her  sister  Isabel,  who  had  herself  married 
the  martyr  Jeremiah,  to  demand  admission  into  the 
cloister.  Her  mother  opposed  the  plan,  preferring  to 
see  her  married.  We  are  told  that,  as  neither  would 
yield  to  the  other,  "  God  came  between  them  and  gave 
the  mother  a  sudden  illness  of  which  she  shortly  died, 
leaving  the  daughter  not  so  much  sorrowing  for  her 
death  as  rejoicing  to  see  the  impediment  to  her  effecting 
her  purpose  removed."  ^  As  the  girl  was  wilful  in 
entering  the   monastery,  she  was  wilful  in  leaving  it. 

^  Jis/>.  Sa^r.,  X.  409. 


THE  MARTYRS  OF  CORDOVA.  277 

She  contrived  to  pass  out  of  the  gate  without  being 
seen  in  order  to  confess  her  faith.  "  She  did  not  know 
the  streets  of  the  city,  for  she  had  never  cared  to  learn 
more  than  the  way  to  heaven,  but  she  was  told  where 
the  kadi  lived,  and  presenting  herself  before  him, 
proved  to  him  with  the  sweetest  words  that  he  ought 
not  to  allow  himself  to  continue  any  longer  deluded 
by  the  superstitions  of  Mohammed,  and  she  expounded 
to  him  the  truth  of  the  mysteries  of  the  Christian 
religion  and  the  abomination  of  the  Mohammedan  sect." 
The  kadi,  touched  by  the  girl's  beauty  and  modesty, 
carried  her  to  the  palace  and  brought  her  before  the 
Judicial  Council,  on  which  Columba  repeated  her  con- 
fession of  faith,  and  ''  begged  the  judges  to  seek  the 
salvation  of  their  souls  instead  of  trying  to  pervert  her 
by  offering  her  honour  and  wealth.  .  .  .  The  judges, 
seeing  her  immutable  firmness  in  the  oracles  of  the 
faith,  ordered  that  she  should  be  beheaded  in  the  court 
of  the  palace."  1  She  died  on  September  17,  853, 
and  her  body  was  at  once  consigned  to  the  river. 
Columba  had  a  friend  named  Pomposa,  also  a  nun,  in 
a  monastery  about  a  league  from  Cordova.  Hearing 
of  Columba's  fate,  she  resolved  on  following  her 
example,  and  on  the  very  night  after  Columba's  exe- 
cution it  happened  that  the  gate  of  the  monastery  was* 
by  accident  left  unlocked.  Pomposa  opened  it  with 
great  caution  that  she  might  not  be  discovered,  and 
found  herself  outside  the  walls.  It  was  night  and 
quite  dark,  and  the  road  was  lonely.  Nevertheless 
she  made  her  way  to  Cordova,  where  she  arrived  at 
daybreak,  presented  herself  before  the  kadi,  and  '^ex- 

*  £s/>.  SagK,  X.  411. 


278         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

pounded  the  mysteries  of  our  Redeemer  and  declared 
the  abomination  of  Mohammed."  ^  She  was  at  once 
beheaded,  and  her  corpse  was  thrown  into  the  river. 

The  year  853  thus  gave  six  martyrs.  The  next 
year  offered  only  one,  a  priest  named  Abundius. 
Unlike  the  others,  he  did  not  seek  out  the  kadi,  but 
being  brought  before  him,  he  declared  himself  a  Chris- 
tian and  assailed  Mohammedanism  in  the  usual  way. 
He  was  beheaded  and  his  body  thrown  to  the  dogs. 
In  855  Amator,  a  priest  of  Tucci ;  Peter,  a  monk  of 
Cordova ;  and  Lewis,  a  brother  of  the  already  martyred 
Paul,  suffered.  In  856,  Elias,  an  aged  Portuguese 
priest,  Paul  and  Isidore,  two  young  Cordovan  monks, 
Witesind  and  Argimirus  of  Egabra,  and  Aurea  of 
Seville,  sister  of  two  brothers,  John  and  Adolphus, 
who  had  been  put  to  death  at  the  beginning  of 
Abderrahman's  reign,  met  the  same  fate.  In  857 
Roderick  and  Solomon  were  executed  on  a  false  charge 
of  being  renegades  from  Islam.  And  now  a  blow  was 
struck  at  the  man  whose  zeal  and  courage  had  kept  up 
the  spirit  of  martyrdom  in  the  breasts  of  others. 

Eulogius  was  a  man  of  good  birth  and  a  native  of 
Cordova.  As  a  young  man  he  became  a  pupil  of 
the  Abbot  Speraindeo,  and  in  the  lecture-room  made 
a  boyish  friendship  with  his  biographer,  Alvar,  which 
lasted  till  his  death.  The  young  men  used  to  send 
essays  and  verses  to  one  another — "  an  exercise 
sweeter  to  us  than  honey,  more  pleasant  than  tlie 
honeycomb  "  ^ — and  with  the  enthusiasm  of  young 
students  in  every  generation,  "  composed  whole  volumes 
of  attempts  to  grasp  the  unknowable,  which,  when  we 
^  Es/>.  Sagr.,  x.  416.  -   Vita  Eulogii,  c.  2. 


THE  MARTYRS  OF  CORDOVA.  279 

grew  older,  we  determined  to  destroy,  that  they  might 
not  get  into  other  hands."  ^  Eiilogius  became  a  man 
of  great  learning,  devouring  the  writings  of  ''  Catholics, 
philosophers,  heretics,  and  heathens ;  poetry,  prose, 
history,  hymns,  Virgil,  Juvenal,  Horace,  Augustine ; " 
but  his  chief  study  was  the  Holy  Scriptures,  ''  so 
that  he  preferred  nothing  to  Holy  Scripture,  nor 
liked  anything  better  than  meditating  day  and  night 
on  the  law  of  the  Lord."  ^  In  due  time  he  was 
ordained  deacon  and  priest,  and  employed  himself 
in  keeping  alive  Christianity  in  the  capital  of  the 
Ommiads.  Abderrahman  called  on  the  MetropoHtan 
Reccafred  to  restrain  the  over-zeal  shown  by  him 
and  those  like  him.  Reccafred  in  851  consigned 
him  to  prison.  There  he  found  the  two  maidens. 
Flora  and  Maria,  and  confirmed  them,  in  spite  of  an 
overwhelming  pity  for  them,  in  their  resolution  to 
die.  Six  days  after  their  passion  Eulogius  was 
released  from  prison,  and  continued  his  bold  course, 
'^  while  bishops,  priests,  clergy,  and  the  wise  men  of 
Cordova  walked  in  a  crooked  path,  and  through  fear 
denied  the  faith  by  signs,  if  not  by  words. "^  So 
much  honoured  was  he  for  his  straightforwardness 
and  zeal,  that  on  the  See  of  Toledo  becoming  vacant 
by  the  death  of  good  Bishop  Wistremir,  he  was 
elected  to  the  primacy  with  the  full  approval  of  the 
suffragan  and  neighbouring  bishops,  but  he  was 
never  consecrated  to  the  post.  Some  obstacle,  we 
are  told,  prevented  it,  which,  probably,  was  the  veto 
of  the  sultan.  Still,  he  was  spiritually  a  bishop,  says 
Alvar;  ^' for   every  saint    is    a    bishop,   though  every 

^   Fifa  Eulogii^  c.  2.  ^  \y\^^  3  j^;,^^  ^^  ^ 


28o        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

bishop  is  not  a  saint."  ^  His  martyrdom  came  about 
in  this  wise.  A  girl  of  Arab  family  named  Leocritia 
was  baptized  and  taught  in  the  Christian  faith  by  a 
relative  named  Litiosa.  When  she  grew  up  her 
Moslem  parents  forbade  her  to  practise  Christianity, 
and  assailed  her  with  blows  and  stripes  and  threats 
of  charging  her  with  being  a  renegade.  In  her  dis- 
tress she  had  recourse  to  Eulogius  and  his  sister 
Anulo  for  help,  and  telling  her  parents  that  she  was 
going  to  the  wedding  of  a  relation,  she  fled  to  them 
for  refuge.  Eulogius  sent  her  to  the  house  of  a 
Christian,  and  she  was  passed  on  from  house  to  house, 
so  that  her  parents,  armed  with  all  the  power  of 
the  law,  could  not  find  and  recover  her.  It  was  often 
her  habit  to  pay  a  visit  to  Anulo  by  night,  when  she 
was  not  likely  to  be  caught ;  but  on  one  occasion  her 
companion  who  was  to  conduct  her  to  her  place  of 
security  did  not  arrive  till  it  was  broad  daylight, 
when  it  was  not  safe  for  her  to  stir  abroad.  Anulo 
kept  her  concealed  for  the  day,  but  on  that  very  da}^ 
the  Mohammedan  soldiers  made  a  descent  upon  the 
house.  Leocritia  was  apprehended,  and  Eulogius,  as 
owner  of  the  house  in  which  she  was  found,  was 
hurried  before  the  kadt,  who  sternly  demanded  why 
he  had  not  delivered  the  girl  up.  Eulogius  replied, 
"  My  lord,  the  office  of  preaching  the  Gospel  is  laid 
upon  us,  and  it  is  our  duty  as  faithful  men  to  hold 
out  the  light  of  the  faith  to  all  inquirers  ;  nor  must 
we  refuse  holy  things  to  any  one  who  is  hastening  to 
the  paths  of  life.  This  is  the  duty  of  priests ;  this 
true   religion   requires ;     this    our    Lord    Christ   com- 

^    Vi/a  I-Ailogii,  c.  lo. 


THE  MARTYRS  OF  CORDOVA.  281 

manded  us— that  any  thirsty  soul  which  asks  to 
drink  of  the  streams  of  faith  should  be  supplied 
with  a  double  draught  of  that  which  he  seeks.  As 
this  girl  made  inquiries  of  us  as  to  the  rules  of  our 
holy  faith,  it  was  necessary  for  us  to  attend  to  her 
with  all  readiness  in  order  that  her  affections  might  be 
the  more  inflamed  towards  it.  It  would  be  wrong  to 
reject  an  applicant  whose  object  was  such  as  I  have 
described,  especially  in  the  case  of  a  man  appointed 
for  this  very  purpose  to  the  office  which  he  holds 
from  Christ.  I  have,  therefore,  instructed  her  to  the 
best  of  my  power,  and  taught  her,  and  explained  to 
her  that  the  faith  of  Christ  is  the  way  to  the  eternal 
kingdom,  as,  indeed,  I  would  gladly  do  for  you,  if 
you  thought  fit  to  enter  upon  a  discussion."  The 
kadi,  disdaining  to  answer,  threatened  to  bastinado 
him  to  death,  and  ordered  the  rods  to  be  brought  in. 
''What  do  you  intend  to  do  with  those  rods?"  said 
Eulogius.  "  I  intend  to  drag  your  life  out  of  your 
body  with  them,"  said  the  kadi.  "  Nay,"  said  Eulo- 
gius, "  sharpen  and  prepare  the  sword,  for  by  that 
y€)u  shall  deliver  my  soul  from  the  yoke  of  the  body 
and  give  it  back  to  Him  that  gave  it ;  but  don't  think 
to  cut  my  limbs  asunder  with  whips."  Beginning 
then  to  denounce  the  false  prophet  and  to  preach 
Christianity,  he  was  hurried  off  to  the  palace  and 
placed  before  the  Council.  On  the  Council  sat 
one  well  acquainted  with  him,  who  took  him  aside 
and  besought  him  as  a  friend  not  to  throw  away  his 
life.  ''  Fools  and  idiots,"  said  he,  ''  allow  themselves 
to  be  carried  down  the  stream  to  ruin  and  death  in 
this   lamentable    way ;    but   what    madness  is   it   that 


282         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

induces  you,  a  man  respected  for  your  wisdom  and 
well  known  for  your  good  life,  to  give  yourself  over 
to  death  in  defiance  of  the  natural  love  of  life  ?  Pray 
listen  to  me,  and  do  not,  I  beseech  you,  run  headlong 
to  destruction.  Just  say  a  word  now  in  the  hour  of 
your  need,  and  afterwards  exercise  your  faith  where 
you  can.  We  promise  you  that  no  inquiry  into  your 
doings  shall  be  made  anywhere."  Eulogius  smiled. 
''Ah  !"  said  he,  "if  you  could  but  know  what  good 
things  are  laid  up  for  those  that  maintain  our  faith  ! 
Or  if  I  could  communicate  to  you  the  feelings  that 
animate  my  breast  !  Then  you  would  not  try  to 
recall  me  from  my  purpose,  but  rather  would  think 
how  to  deliver  yourself  from  the  earthly  honours  that 
you  enjoy  ! "  His  friend  drew  back,  and  Eulogius 
began  to  preach  Christianity  to  the  Council.  The 
judges  at  once  gave  sentence  of  death,  and  ordered 
him  to  be  led  out  for  execution.  As  he  passed  along 
one  of  the  eunuchs  struck  him  on  the  cheek.  Eulo- 
gius turned  to  him  the  other  cheek,  saying,  "  Put 
this  cheek,  I  beseech  you,  on  an  equality  with  the 
other."  The  eunuch  struck  him  as  desired,  and  he 
again  offered  him  the  cheek  that  had  been  first 
struck.  The  soldiers  grew  impatient,  and  thrust  him 
forward  to  the  place  of  execution.  Here  the  martyr 
knelt  down,  and  lifting  up  his  hands  to  heaven  and 
signing  himself  with  the  sign  of  the  cross,  after  a  few 
moments  of  secret  prayer  he  stretched  his  head  forward 
and  "  by  a  swift  blow  he  found  his  life."  He  died  on 
Saturday,  March  1 1,  859.  It  was  noted  that  a  white 
dove  sailed  through  the  air  in  the  sight  of  all  present 
and  pitched  upon  the  body  as  it  lay  exposed.     Driven 


THE  MARTYRS  OF  CORDOVA.  283 

off  by  hand-clapping  and  stones,  it  wheeled  upwards 
to  a  tower  that  overlooked  the  spot,  and  there  sat 
without  moving.  At  night  some  priests,  dressed  in 
their  white  robes  of  office,  came  with  lanterns  and 
sang  psalms  round  the  corpse.  One  of  the  palace 
slaves,  going  down  to  the  river  to  draw  water,  saw 
and  heard  them,  and  thinking  them  to  be  celestial 
visitants,  ran  back  in  terror  to  call  his  comrades.  By 
the  time  that  they  had  returned  together  the  priests 
had  finished  their  service  and  were  gone.  The 
Christians  recovered  the  martyr's  head  by  paying  a 
sum  to  the  executioners,  and  at  the  end  of  three  days 
they  were  allowed  to  gather  up  the  remains  of  the 
body  and  give  them  burial.  Leocritia  was  beheaded 
a  few  days  later,  and  her  body  was  thrown  into  the 
Guadalquivir,  whence  it  was  recovered  by  the  care  of 
the  Christians.  Both  the  bodies  are  said  to  have 
been  translated  to  Oviedo  in  the  year  d>^7,f  during  the 
reign  of  Alonzo  III. 

With  Eulogius  the  martyr-spirit  died  out.  It 
required  a  man  of  his  capacity,  courage,  and  vigour 
to  keep  it  alive.  Alvar  was  the  only  surviving 
member  of  Speraindeo's  school  left,  and  brave  as  he 
was,  alone  he  was  unequal  to  the  task  which  Eulo- 
gius so  successfully  performed.  From  this  time 
forward  the  Mozarabic  Church  is  less  and  less  heard 
of;  and  when,  at  length,  Toledo  was  recovered  to 
Christianity,  the  Mozarabs  had  not  strength  enough 
to  preserve  their  own  line  of  prelates  and  the  lofty 
traditions  of  the  Primatial  See.  They  submitted 
to  have  imposed  upon  them  by  the  King  of  Leon 
(Alonzo  VI.)   and    by   the   North    Spanish   Church   a 


284        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

Frenchman  who  accepted  his  office  as  a  gift  from 
the  Itahan  Pope,  and  who  introduced  into  Toledo 
the  ideas  prevalent  in  the  Monastery  of  Cluny.  The 
page  of  history  that  is  written  in  the  blood  of 
Eulogius  and  his  comrades  and  followers  is  a  noble 
one,  and  contrasts  favourably  with  the  contemporary 
Christian  history  in  the  kingdoms  of  Leon,  Castile, 
and  Aragon.  While  the  Mozarabic  Christians  were 
giving  their  lives  grandly,  if  rashly,  for  the  cause  of 
Christ,  the  Leonese,  which  after  a  while  became  the 
Spanish,  Church  was  sinking  down  more  and  more 
into  the  superstitions  which  naturally  permeated  a 
body  whose  profoundest  belief  was  in  the  fable  of 
S.  James  preaching  in  Spain,  the  translation  of  his 
bones  to  Iria  after  his  death,  the  discovery  of  his 
body  in  the  ninth  century,  his  prowess  as  a  leader 
in  war,  and  the  miracles  by  which  the  church,  built 
over  the  spot  where  he  was  said  to  be  buried,  was 
magnified. 


CHAPTER    XXII. 

BISHOP  HOSTEGESIS  AND  THE  ABBOT  SAMSON. 

Before  the  martyrdoms  had  come  to  an  end  another 
question  arose  in  Cordova  which  served  in  some 
degree  to  turn  public  attention  from  them.  Hoste- 
gesis,  Bishop  of  Malaga,  came,  with  the  connivance 
of  his  metropolitan,  to  reside  in  the  royal  city,  where 
he  made  himself  very  popular  with  the  Arabian 
courtiers  by  freely  joining  in  their  excesses.  He 
was  connected  by  marriage  with  Servandus,  Count 
of  Cordova,  the  official  set  in  authority  over  the 
Christians  by  the  sultan,  and  was  great-nephew  to 
Samuel,  Bishop  of  Elvira,  who  had  apostatised  to 
Islam.  He  was  a  harsh  man,  and  his  mind  was  by 
no  means  that  of  a  theologian.  He  took  little  real 
interest  in  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  doctrines,  but 
he  was  a  man  of  considerable  mental  power,  and 
always  disposed  to  take  the  lead.  At  Cordova  he 
came  in  contact  with  some  anthropomorphites,  named 
Romanus  and  Libertian,  who  maintained  the  old 
heresy  that  regarded  God  as  existing  in  the  human 
form.  Hostegesis  did  not  adopt  their  view,  but  he 
struck  out  from  it  a  new  heresy,  which  denied,  or 
seemed  to  deny,  the  true  character  of  the  Divine 
Omnipresence.  He  taught  that  God  existed  in  every- 
thing, not  by  His  essential  nature  {substantia),  but  by 

385 


286        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

His  power  of  penetrating  {subtilitas).  He  denied  that 
God  was  present  in  every  part  of  everything ;  and  he 
maintained  that  it  was  not  in  the  womb  but  in  the 
heart  of  S.  Mary  that  the  Son  of  God  became  in- 
carnate. The  formula  by  which  Hostegesis  differed 
from  the  orthodox  doctrine  was  hardly  more  than  a 
distinction  of  words,  and  had  it  been  left  alone 
would  probably  have  been  soon  forgotten  ;  but  the 
Spanish  mind  was  singularly  fond  of  occupying  itself 
with  points  of  speculative  theology,  and  even  now, 
when  the  Church  had  to  struggle  for  its  life  in  the 
face  of  oppressive  Mohammedanism,  men  were  found 
ready  to  embark  in  the  controversy  thus  offered  to 
them.  The  second  tenet  of  Hostegesis  was  more 
adapted  to  rouse  attention  than  the  first,  because 
it  had  to  do  with  S.  Mary  the  Virgin,  whose  venera- 
tion was  becoming  more  and  more  extended  in 
Spain  through  the  authority  of  writings  that  bore 
the  name  of  Ildefonso.  The  Abbot  Samson  came 
forward  to  oppose  Hostegesis,  and  published  a  con- 
fession of  faith  specially  aimed  at  his  errors.  Hoste- 
gesis, being  a  man  of  overbearing  temper,  summoned 
an  informal  meeting  of  the  Bishops  of  Anda- 
lusia, called  Samson  before  them,  and  charged  him 
in  turn  with  heresy,  telling  him  that  unless  he 
would  acknowledge  that  at  the  Incarnation  Christ 
was  enclosed  in  the  heart  of  the  Virgin,  just  as  he 
closed  his  open  hand  upon  his  thumb,  he  should 
be  excommunicated  and  'deposed.  Samson  refused, 
and  although  the  assembled  bishops  allowed  that 
his  confession  of  faith  was  orthodox,  they  were 
overawed   by  the  violence   and  power  of  Hostegesis, 


BISHOP  HOSTEGESIS  AND  ABBOT  SAMSON.    287 

and  signed  a  condemnation  which  that  prelate  had 
drawn  up  beforehand,  by  which  Samson  was  ex- 
communicated, banished,  and  deprived  for  ever  of 
every  clerical  office.  It  so  happened  that  in  the 
year  862,  just  before  this  meeting,  Valentius  had 
been  consecrated  Bishop  of  Cordova.  He  was  con- 
vinced of  Samson's  innocence,  but  being  the  youngest 
bishop  present,  he  did  not  venture  to  oppose  his 
brethren.  But  as  soon  as  he  was  freed  from  the 
pressure  of  Hostegesis'  presence,  he  repented  of  his 
backwardness  and  took  measures  to  cancel  the  ex- 
communication. He  communicated  with  other  bishops 
who  had  not  been  at  the  Synod ;  among  them  the 
Metropolitan  of  Merida.  Supported  by  their  written 
opinions  and  by  the  consent  of  some  of  those  who 
had  been  present,  he  declared  the  sentence  of  ex- 
communication to  be  void,  restored  Samson  to  his 
office,  and  gave  him  a  cure  in  Cordova.  Hostegesis 
appealed  to  the  sultan,  Mohammed  I.,  who  ordered 
the  deposition  of  Valentius  and  the  election  of 
Stephen,  who  was  accordingly  appointed  by  the 
Metropolitan  of  Seville  and  two  suffragan  bishops, 
in  the  presence  of  Jews  and  Moslems  summoned  to 
fill  the  place  of  the  Christians,  who  had  all  absented 
themselves.  Samson  was  next  accused  of  treason 
against  the  sultan,  tried,  and  acquitted.  Servandus 
then  proposed  a  scheme  for  the  destruction  both 
of  Valentius  and  Samson.  One  of  the  Cordovan 
martyrs  was  about  to  be  put  to  death  on  a  charge 
of  blasphemy.  Servandus  suggested  that  they  should 
be  asked  whether  what  the  accused  had  said  was  true 
or  false.      If  they  said  it  was  true,  they  would  incur 


288        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

the  penalty  of  death  themselves,  if  they  said  it  was 
false,  they  might  be  ordered  to  put  him  to  death 
for  his  guilt  with  their  owai  hands,  and  if  they 
refused,  be  slain  for  their  disobedience.  The  Moslem 
sultan  was  too  high-minded  to  accept  the  counsel 
given  by  a  Christian  bishop  and  by  the  count  of 
the  Christians,  but  Samson  felt  that  it  would  be 
safest  for  him  to  absent  himself  from  Cordova, 
"thinking  it  better  to  change  his  place  than  to 
change  his  faith  ;  "  so  he  withdrew  to  Tucci  (Martos), 
about  fifty  miles  from  the  royal  city,  and  occupied 
himself  there  in  writing  his  defence,  which  he  called 
Apologeticus. 

Not  long  afterwards,  Hostegesis,  who  had  no  real 
preference  for  one  doctrine  over  another,  and  had 
acted  rather  from  pride  than  misbelief,  allowed  him- 
self to  be  persuaded  by  Leovigild  into  giving  up 
both  of  his  dogmas  concerning  the  Omnipresence  of 
God  and  the  manner  of  the  Incarnation.  Samson 
returned  to  Cordova,  and  died  in  890.  The  arch- 
priest  Cyprian  wrote  an  epitaph  for  his  tomb. 

Samson  had  come  before  the  world  at  an  earlier 
date.  In  the  year  856,  Hilduin,  Abbot  of  the  Holy 
Cross  and  of  S.  Vincent,  near  Paris,  had  sent  Usuard, 
known  as  the  author  of  a  martyrology,  into  Spain  to 
fetch  the  body  of  -S.  Vincent.  Usuard  made  his 
way  to  Valencia,  and  found  that  the  body  was  gone, 
a  monk  named  Audaldus  having  carried  it  to  Zara- 
goza,  where  it  was  venerated  as  that  of  S.  Marinus. 
Usuard,  not  knowing  this,  went  in  quest  of  it  to 
Barcelona.  Here  he  heard  of  the  martyrs  of  Cor- 
dova, and  journeyed  to  that  city,  provided  with  letters 


BISHOP  HOSTEGESIS  AND  ABBOT  SAMSON.     289 

from   the    Bishop   of  Barcelona    to    a  layman    named 
Leovigild  Abadsolomes  (not  the  Leovigild   mentioned 
above)  asking  for  his   help   in   securing   some  relics, 
as  he  had  failed  to  get   those  of  S.  Vincent.     "  For," 
says  Aymon,  the  narrator,  naively,  "  he  and  his  com- 
panions vi^ept  over   the  thought  of  going  back  empty- 
handed  ;  and  as   they  could  not  anyhow  get  hold   of 
the  body  of  the  blessed  Vincent,  they  said   that  they 
were  determined   to  find   the   limbs  (membra)  of  some 
saint  who  deserved  such   honour,   and   to  take   them 
with    them,    that    they    might    net  go    empty  away." 
Leovigild  confidentially  communicated  Usuard's  object 
to  Samson,  who  was  then   attached  to  the  Church  of 
S.  Zoilus.      At  that   moment,  "  by  the   special  provi- 
dence   of  Heaven  "    {divinitus   contigit),  Samson    was 
elected  Abbot  of  Pinamelar  or  Penamellar ;  and  as  the 
bodies  of  George  and  Aurelius,  whose  martyrdom  has 
been   recounted   above,  were   buried   in  the  church  of 
this    monastery,    Usuard    was    convinced    that    these 
saints    had    caused    Samson    to   be   elected    in   order 
that  their  bodies  might   be  translated.      Samson  ob- 
tained permission  from  Bishop  Saul  for  the  transpor- 
tation,   and    Usuard    determined    to    take    advantage 
of  an  expedition  that  Mohammed  was  about  to  make 
against   Toledo    to    convey    his    treasures    so    far   in 
safety.      At  the  critical  moment  Samson  was  absent, 
and  the   monks   refused  to   give  up  the   bodies  ;   the 
Bishop    was   again    appealed   to,    and    at    length    the 
monks  yielded,   after  a  hard   struggle  and  with  great 
reluctance.      The   bodies  were  dug  up  six  years  after 
they  had   been    buried.      That  of  George  was   found 
perfect,  the  head  of  Sabigotho  or  Nathalia  (as  she  is 


290        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

now  called)  was  sewn  to  the  body  of  her  husband 
Aurelius.  The  bodies  were  swathed  in  linen  wrap- 
pings, sealed  by  Bishop  Saul  with  the  Frankish 
king's  seal,  and  carried  to  Cordova ;  whence,  through 
Toledo,  Zaragoza,  Bordeaux,  and  Narbonne,  they 
safely  reached  Paris.  This  is  one  of  the  many 
stories  of  attempts  made  b}^  the  adherents  of  one 
Church  to  beg  or  steal  the  bodies  of  saints  from 
another. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

THE  SECOND  PERIOD  OF  THE  MOORISH 
DOMINA  TION. 

When  the  last  scion  of  the  Ommiad  race  perished 
in  the  year  103 1,  the  unity  of  the  Mohammedan  rule 
in  Spain  perished  likewise.  The  pretenders  to  the 
throne  of  Cordova  during  the  last  twenty  years  had 
bribed  the  governors  of  the  various  cities  to  take 
their  side  by  making  their  offices  hereditary.  When 
the  last  Ommiad  died  all  these  governors  claimed 
perfect  independence,  and  the  result  was  that  there 
were  as  many  Moorish  kingdoms  in  Spain  as  there 
were  cities  under  Moorish  control.  These  indepen- 
dent principalities,  each  led  by  their  petty  interests, 
warred  one  with  another ;  nor  did  they  even  abstain 
from  allying  themselves  with  Christian  States  in 
order  to  obtain  the  mastery  over  a  more  powerful 
neighbour.  The  time  seemed  to  be  come  for  the 
Christians  to  re-enter  their  inheritance.  Who  would 
have  believed  that  that  time  was  not  yet  to  arrive 
for  nearly  five  hundred  years  ?  The  cause  of  the 
continuance  of  Mohammedan  sway  in  Spain  was 
twofold — I.  The  incessant  dissensions  among  the 
Christians  of  Leon,  Castile,  Navarre,  and  Aragon, 
and  the  frequent  separation  of  the  larger  princi- 
palities into  petty  fiefs.      2.   The  reinforcement  of  the 


292        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

Mohammedans  from  Africa,  first  by  the  Almoravides 
in  1087,  next  by  the  Almohades  in  1146. 

Even  .before  the  deposition  of  the  last  Ommiad, 
Cordova  bore  the  appearance  of  a  city  that  had  been 
taken  by  storm  and  devastated.  In  1006  the  mob 
had  risen  and  plundered  Almanzor's  palace  of  Azza- 
hira.  Two  years  later  the  Berbers,  who  were  then 
in  power,  sacked  and  burnt  Abderrahman's  magni- 
ficent palace  of  Azzahra.  When  the  last  repre- 
sentative of  the  caliphs  had  passed  away  there  was 
no  central  authority  round  which  the  lovers  of  order 
could  gather  to  make  head  against  either  civil  or 
foreign  assailants.  Alonzo  V.  began  the  forward 
movement  of  the  Northern  Christians  by  rebuilding 
Leon,  and  once  more  transferring  the  capital  to  that 
city.  He  again  reduced  Portugal,  which  had  been 
rent  from  his  father  by  Almanzor,  but  was  killed 
himself  in  laying  siege  to  Viseo.  Fernando  I.,  in 
the  year  1057,  captured  this  city,  cut  off  the  hands 
of  the  archer  who  had  slain  Alonzo,  and  finally  re- 
duced the  remaining  towns  of  Lusitania ;  the  Moorish 
King  of  Toledo  became  his  vassal,  and  he  carried 
his  arms  southwards  as  far  as  Valencia.  He  was 
succeeded  by  Alonzo  VI.,  who,  after  reuniting  the 
kingdoms  of  the  Asturias,  Leon,  Galicia,  and  Castile, 
which  had  again  become  separate,  led  his  troops 
against  Toledo,  and  captured  that  city.  To  this 
reign  belong  the  exploits  of  Rodrigo  Diaz  of  Bivar, 
called  the  Cid,  an  Arabic  title  meaning  master.  He  is 
first  heard  of  as  fighting  a  Navarrese  knight  in  single 
combat  in  the  3^ear  1064,  after  which  he  became 
captain   of  the  Castilian   forces,  and   soon  after  took 


MOORISH  DOMINATION :  SECOND  PERIOD.     293 

service  with  King  Alonzo.  According  to  his  incHna- 
tion  he  passed  from  one  sovereign  to  another,  and  by- 
and-by  constituted  himself  the  head  of  a  free  com- 
pany, ready  to  take  service  sometimes  even  with 
Moors,  but  with  all  his  prejudices  enlisted  for  the 
Christian  and  against  the  Moorish  cause.  In  the 
end  he  made  himself  master  of  Valencia,  and  kept 
it  for  himself  against  both  Moors  and  Christians, 
occupying  himself  in  harrying  the  Moors  and  de- 
feating the  various  Moslem  kinglets  of  Andalusia.-^ 

The  capture  of  Toledo,  and  perhaps  the  prowess 
of  the  Cid,  struck  terror  into  the  hearts  of  the 
Spanish  Moors.  Mohammed,  King  of  Seville  and 
Cordova,  felt  that  if  he  was  to  save  himself  he  must 
enter  into  an  alliance  with  all  the  remaining  indepen- 
dent Mohammedan  powers  in  Spain,  and  that  it  was 
doubtful  whether  this  combination  would  be  strong 
enough  to  resist  Alonzo.  He  invited  to  Seville 
the  Kings  of  Badajoz,  Almeria,  Granada,  and  Malaga 
to  take  counsel  together.  They  determined  that 
there  was  no  force  in  Mohammedan  Spain  which 
could  resist  their  adversary,  and  that  if  they  were 
to   be  saved   they   must   look   outside    the  Peninsula. 

^  The  sources  of  our  information  about  the  Cid  are — (i)  "  The  Chroni- 
cles of  the  Cid,"  translated  by  Southey ;  (2)  poems  and  ballads  relating 
to  him  ;  (3)  notices  of  "the  tyrant  Cambitur  "  by  Arab  writers.  Pro- 
fessor Dozy,  whose  delight  is  to  reconstruct  history  on  the  narrowest 
foundations,  rejects  the  whole  story  of  the  Cid.  In  this  he  follows 
Dr.  Dunham,  who  relegates  it  to  an  appendix,  and  Masdeu,  who  can- 
not feel  sure  of  his  existence  {J7is^.  Cn'^.,  xx.  170).  It  is  not  necessary 
to  accept  the  whole  of  the  Chronicles  as  free  from  exaggeration,  nor  is 
any  trust  to  be  put  in  the  details  of  the  romances  and  ballads  invented 
by  patriotic  fancy  about  him,  but  it  is  probable  that  out  of  the  Chroni- 
cles we  are  able  to  gather  a  sufficiently  exact  idea  of  one  who  combined 
the  life  of  the  free-lance  with  Spanish  chivalry  and  Christian  faith. 


294        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

They  turned  their  eyes  to  Yusef-ben-Taxfin,  who 
had  just  succeeded  in  erecting  a  powerful  kingdom 
in  Africa.  Yusef  was  a  cousin  of  Abu-Bekr,  who, 
under  the  guidance  of  a  religious  teacher  named 
Abdallah,  had  given  a  fiercely  warlike  turn  to  an 
Arabian  tribe  called  Lamtuna,  and  had  formed  them 
into  a  fanatical  army,  with  which  he  had  subjected 
the  West  of  Africa.  He  gave  his  followers  the  name 
of  Morabethah  or  Marabouts,  which  name  was  cor- 
rupted into  Almoravides.  Abu-Bekr  began  to  build 
the  city  of  Morocco  in  1070,  but  being  called  away 
to  oppose  an  enemy,  he  left  his  cousin  Yusef  to 
complete  the  work  which  he  had  begun.  When 
Abu-Bekr  returned  he  found  that  Yusef  had  finished 
building  Morocco,  and  had  also  made  himself  so 
popular  with  the  soldiery  that  there  was  nothing 
left  for  himself  but  to  abdicate.  Yusef  took  the 
name  of  Emir-al-Muslemin,  Commander  of  the  Mos- 
lems, which  was  much  the  same  thing  as  claiming 
the  title  of  caliph.  At  this  moment  there  came 
to  him  the  application  for  help  from  Spain.  He 
accepted  the  invitation  on  condition  that  Algesiras 
should  be  delivered  up  to  him,  and  in  1086  he 
crossed  the  straits  with  a  powerful  army.  Alonzo 
was  at  the  time  besiegiiig  Zaragoza,  and  marched 
southwards  to  oppose  the  invader.  The  two  armies 
met  in  the  plain  of  Zalaeca,  and  Alonzo  was  van- 
quished. So  well,  however,  had  the  Christians  fought 
that  the  troops  of  the  conqueror  were  paralysed,  and 
had  to  wait  for  further  reinforcements.  Twice  Yusef 
returned  to  Africa,  and  twice  he  came  back  to  Spain 
with   new  forces.      Finding   then    that   the  Christians 


MOORISH  DOMINATION:  SECOND  PERIOD.     295 

were  a  more  difficult  prey  than  his  co-rehgionists,  he 
turned  his  arms  upon  the  latter.  He  subjected  to 
himself  the  Kings  of  Granada  and  Malaga,  and  made 
war  upon  Mohammed,  who,  in  despair,  called  in  Alonzo 
to  his  aid.  Yusef,  however,  beat  back  the  Christians, 
captured  Seville,  and  sent  Mohammed  and  his  family 
as  prisoners  to  Africa.  The  whole  of  Mohammedan 
Spain  submitted  with  the  exception  of  Zaragoza,  which 
was  left  to  serve  as  a  rampart  against  the  Christian 
States  of  the  North,  a  duty  which  it  fulfilled  until 
it  was  captured,  in  the  year  11 18,  by  Alonzo  I.  of 
Aragon. 

The  overthrow  of  the  Almoravide  dynasty  came 
from  Africa.  There  was  in  that  country  a  religious 
teacher  professing  to  be  "  the  Mahdi,"  who  gathered 
round  himself  a  body  of  fanatical  believers  called 
Almohades,  a  name  derived  from  the  title  Al- Mahdi, 
and  who  in  time  formed  a  kingdom.  The  Berbers 
joined  the  Mahdi  in  great  numbers,  and  he  appointed 
Abdelmumen  as  a  rival  caliph  to  Ali,  son  and  suc- 
cessor of  Yusef  Several  battles  ensued  between  the 
two  parties,  and  the  Almohades  besieged  Morocco. 
The  siege  was  twice  raised,  but  at  length  the  city 
was  captured  and  the  Almoravide  Empire  in  Africa 
destroyed. 

The  Christian  cause  had  made  progress  while  the 
two  Mohammedan  powers  were  fighting  with  each 
other.  The  King  of  Aragon  had  been  successful  in 
the  North,  and  the  Count  of  Portugal  had  been  pro- 
claimed king  in  the  West.  The  arrival  of  the  Almo- 
hades in  Spain  under  Abdelmumen  in  1 146  turned 
the  scale   against    the    Christians.      In    1195    Yacub- 


296        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

Almanzor,  grandson  of  Abdelmumen,  defeated  Alonzo 
of  Castile  in  the  great  battle  of  Alarcos,  and  reduced 
many  towns  in  the  centre  of  Spain.  Three  years 
later  he  died,  leaving  the  kingdom  to  a  weak  suc- 
cessor named  Mohammed,  who  was  in  turn  defeated 
by  Alonzo  in  the  great  battle  of  Navas  de  Tolosa 
in  1211.^  Mohammedanism  never  recovered  the 
blow  it  received  in  this  great  battle,  which  practi- 
cally closed  the  second  period  of  the  Moorish  domi- 
nation in  Spain,  though  that  period  did  not  absolutely 
come  to  an  end  till  1237.  After  that  date  the  posi- 
tion of  Christian  and  Moor  was  so  changed  that  the 
Mohammedans  had  only  one  corner  of  the  Peninsula 
left  them,  like  the  Christians  after  the  year  711. 

^  Pope  Innocent  111.  encouraged  ciiuudtrs  to  come  from  other 
countries  to  take  part  in  this  battle  by  the  Bull  of  the  Crusade,  which 
extended  the  privileges  granted  to  the  Crusaders  to  those  who  fought 
against  the  Saracens  in  Spain  or  contributed  money  to  the  cause. 
The  Saracens  of  Spain  are  no  more,  but  the  Bull  of  the  Crusade, 
renewed  by  subsequent  Popes,  contiinies  to  be  issued  to  the  present 
day.  But  it  has  changed  its  character.  Now  its  possession  is  a  con- 
dition of  obtaining  Indulgences,  whether  for  the  benefit  of  the  owner 
or  for  the  souls  of  the  departed,  and  it  secures  a  dispensation  from 
fasting  on  all  but  a  few  days  in  the  year.  Every  Spanish  Roman 
Catholic  is  bound  to  purchase  a  copy  of  this  Bull  every  year,  for  which 
he  has  to  pay  fivepence-halfpenny,  and  without  it  no  Indulgences 
can  be  gained  by  him.  Vast  numbers  of  copies  are  printed  annually, 
and  they  are  sold  at  certain  specified  churches.  All  devout  Spaniards 
buy  their  copy,  for  their  everyday  religion  consists  in  gaining  Indul- 
gences for  themselves  and  for  their  deceased  relatives.  In  consequence, 
all  devout  Spaniards  are  excused  from  fasiing.  The  arrival  of  the  new 
Bulls,  which  come  at  Midlent,  is  welcomed  with  ringing  of  bells  and 
other  joyous  ceiemonies. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

THE  NEW  CHURCH  OF  LEON  AND  CASTILE. 

The  men  who  were  now  winning  back  their  patri- 
mony from  the  misbehevers  were  very  different  from 
those  who  had  lost  it.  Five  centuries  ago  there  had 
been  a  haughty  Gothic  court  and  aristocracy,  which 
looked  down  with  scarcely  concealed  contempt  on 
those  who  had  been  their  subjects,  and  whom,  as 
an  act  of  grace,  they  had  raised  to  a  legal  equality 
with  themselves,  by  allowing  them  for  the  last 
generation  or  two  the  right  of  intermarriage  and 
the  use  of  the  same  laws  that  governed  their  own 
conduct.  Now  all  differences  of  race  were  lost.  The 
distinction  of  Christian  and  Mohammedan  swallowed 
up  all  minor  differences.  No  one  knew  whether 
the  hardy  mountaineers  who  had  pushed  their  way 
back  from  the  Cave  of  Covadonga  to  Toledo,  to 
Seville,  and  to  Cordova  were  descended  from  Goth 
or  Sueve,  Roman  or  Byzantine — nay,  from  freeman 
or  slave.  They  were  not  Arabs  or  Berbers,  and 
that  was  enough.  There  emerged  a  nation  no 
longer  composed  of  rival  and  jarring  elements,  but 
welded  together  by  the  blows  of  adversity  into  one 
homogeneous  mass,  however  much  the  interests  of 
different  provinces  or  petty  kingdoms  set  them  at 
times    at    variance    with    one    another.       Only    one 


298        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

race,  the  Basques,  resisted  the  fusing-povver  of  the 
flame  of  the  Arab  wars,  as  it  has  resisted  full  amal- 
gamation with  its  neighbours  to  the  present  day, 
with  the  help  of  the  obstacle  presented  by  its 
language. 

The  Church  which  came  back  with  the  conquer- 
ing Castilians  and  Leonese  was  far  more  changed 
in  its  essential  characteristics  than  the  nation.  It 
was  a  new  Church,  with  doctrines  altered,  and — a 
more  important  thing,  as  it  turned  out — with  a 
new  centre  on  which  to  rest.  We  have  seen  that 
down  to  the  time  of  Bishop  Julian,  a.d.  681,  the 
highest  ecclesiastical  authority  for  each  province 
was  the  metropolitan  bishop,  and  for  the  nation  the 
National  Council.  At  the  Twelfth  Council  of  Toledo 
a  Primatial  power  was  given  to  Bishop  Julian,  which 
thenceforward  resided  in  the  See  of  Toledo.  Above 
the  Primate  of  Toledo  and  the  National  Council  there 
was  no  authority  except  that  of  the  (Ecumenical 
Councils,  of  which  the  Spanish  Church  recognised 
the  First,  Second,  Third,  Fourth,  and  Sixth,  with- 
out passing  any  judgment,  favourable  or  otherwise, 
on  the  Fifth.  The  Primate  of  Spain  regarded  him- 
self as  on  an  equality  with  the  Primate  of  Italy,  as 
is  shown  by  the  indignant  rejection  of  the  Pope's 
criticism  on  the  orthodoxy  of  Julian's  Apologcticum 
by  the  Fourteenth  Council  of  Toledo.  This  spirit  of 
independence  was  inherited  by  the  Spanish  primates 
who  lived  during  the  Moorish  domination,  and  is 
as  strongly  expressed  by  Elipandus  as  it  was  by 
Julian.  But  what  was  an  Elipandus  or  any  Christian 
bishop    under    the   Moslem    rule    as    compared    with 


NEW  CHURCH  OF  LEON  AND  CASTILE.       299 

a  Julian  wielding  the  power  of  the  Spanish  mon- 
archy ?  Even  the  Christians  who  lived  in  the 
conquered  districts  and  paid  tribute  to  their  insult- 
ing masters  could  get  no  real  help  from  him,  and 
the  free  Christians  of  the  North  looked  with  disdain 
on  all  who  had  not  cast  in  their  lot  with  them  in 
their  struggle  for  faith  and  liberty,  and  paid  little 
heed  to  a  primate  who  might  be  deposed  by  a 
caliph,  and  on  whom  pressure  might  be  brought 
to  bear  at  any  time  by  the  enemies  of  Christianity. 
T/m'r  bishops  were  as  free  as  their  kings.  Merida, 
the  seat  of  the  metropolitan  power,  had  been  razed 
by  the  Moors,  nor  could  they  look  to  Braga ;  but 
in  Galicia,  the  ancient  kingdom  of  the  Suevi,  which 
was  well  out  of  the  way  of  the  Moorish  invasion, 
and  could  not  be  reached  while  the  Christian  kings 
held  their  own  at  Leon,  there  was,  or  there  might 
be  erected,  a  See  which  should  supply  to  the  free 
Christians  the  place  which  Toledo  still  held  for  the 
Mozarabs  and  had  once  held  for  the  whole  Spanish 
Church.  So  at  the  beginning  of  the  ninth  century 
there  were  the  glancing  lights  and  the  angelic  songs 
which  told  of  something  holy,  and  Theodomir  dis- 
covered at  Compostela  the  body  of  S.  James  the  son 
of  Zebedee,  and  King  Alonzo  the  Chaste  hastened 
to  build  a  church  on  the  spot,  and  Alonzo  III. 
changed  it  into  a  cathedral,  and  the  Kings  of  Oviedo 
and  Leon  and  Castile  vied  with  one  another  in 
enriching  and  magnifying  the  See  which  was  now 
the  centre  of  the  religious  aspirations  of  the  Chris- 
tians of  the  North.  But  S.  lago  de  Compostela  could 
not  stand  by  its  own  force,  even  when  supported  by 


300        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

the  Kings  of  Leon.  It  required  some  ecclesiastical 
sanction  as  well.  And  for  this  it  looked  outside  of 
Spain.  When  Theodomir  had  made  his  wonderful 
discovery,  he  at  once  had  recourse  to  Rome  for  the 
Papal  sanction,  and  Leo  III.  wrote  the  letter  (if, 
indeed,  it  is  genuine)  which  gives  us  most  of  our 
information  on  the  subject. 

The  long-continued  Moorish  domination  afforded 
to  the  Pope  an  opportunity  of  extending  his  power 
over  Spain  which  he  had  never  before  had,  and  he 
took  advantage  of  it.  It  was  easier  for  Galicia,  Por- 
tugal, Leon,  Castile,  Navarre,  Aragon,  Catalonia,  to 
communicate  with  the  capital  of  Italy  than  with  the 
capital  of  Spain  while  the  Moslem  reigned  at  Cor- 
dova, and  a  natural  sympathy  between  Christians 
and  Christians  united  the  inhabitants  of  those  coun- 
tries with  the  Franks  across  the  Pyrenees,  and  with 
the  powerful  Western  prelate  at  Rome.  On  the 
other  hand,  a  generous  and  unselfish  interest  in  the 
cause  of  Christianity  had  its  share  in  moving  the 
latter  to  give  all  the  spiritual  aid  in  his  power  to  the 
antagonists  of  Mohammed.  It  was  perhaps  an  un- 
selfish zeal  for  religion  which  caused  Adrian  to  send 
Egila  on  a  mission  into  Mohammedan  Spain  at  the 
end  of  the  eighth  century.  For  two  centuries  and  a 
half  after  that  time  there  was  no  communication 
between  Rome  and  the  Peninsula.  Until  the  fall  of 
the  Ommiad  dynasty  the  few  Christian  Churches  in 
Leon,  Aragon,  and  Catalonia  were  weak  institutions, 
and  the  degraded  state  of  the  Papacy  prevented  it 
from  occupying  itself  with  foreign  affairs.  With  the 
eleventh    century    came    the    revival    of    religion    at 


NEW  CHURCH  OF  LEON  AND  CASTILE.       301 

Rome,  first  promoted  by  the  Emperors  of  Germany, 
and  then  turned  against  them  by  the  genius  of  Hil- 
debrand,  who  regarded  it  as  a  necessary  condition 
of  carrying  out  the  ecclesiastical  reforms  which  he 
desired  to  effect,  that  the  Western  Church  should  be 
consolidated  into  a  single  monarchy,  despotically 
ruled  by  the  Roman  Pontiff.  Decretal  Letters  of  an 
unimportant  character  were  addressed  to  Churches  or 
bishops  in  free  Spain  by  Benedict  VIII.  in  1013, 
John  XIX.  in  1030,  Nicholas  II.  in  1060,  Alex- 
ander 11.  in  1063  ^i^d  1066.  The  last-named  Pope 
in  1065  adjudicated  the  case  of  a  Portuguese  pres- 
byter who,  by  his  bishop's  desire,  had  appealed  to 
Rome,^  and  in  the  kingdom  of  Aragon  he  began  the 
assault  on  the  old  Spanish,  or,  as  it  was  now  called, 
Mozarabic  Liturgy  and  Breviary,  which  was  des- 
tined in  the  course  of  the  century  to  be  too  success- 
ful throughout  the  Peninsula. 

The  use  of  the  Mozarabic  service-books  was  the 
one  distinctive  feature  of  the  various  Churches  at 
this  time  existing  in  Spain.  There  was  now  no 
National  Church,  but  there  was  a  Church  of  Leon,  a 
Church  of  Castile,  sometimes  united  with  one  an- 
other, sometimes  separate ;  a  Church  of  Aragon,  a 
Church  of  Navarre,  a  Church  of  Catalonia,  and  a 
Mozarabic  Church.  The  authority  of  the  Primate  of 
Toledo  was  confined  to  the  Mozarabic  Church,  and 
the  others  were  governed   by  their  own  metropolitans 

^  This  is  the  first  genuine  case  in  Spanish  and  Portuguese  history  of 
an  appeal  being  carried  to  Rome  instead  of  being  settled  by  a  court 
of  the  bishops  of  the  province.  There  had  been  great  difficulty  in 
assembling  bishops  ever  since  the  Moorish  conquest,  and  this  may 
have  opened  the  way  to  appeals  to  Rome. 


302        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

and  bishops  as  Provincial  or  National  Churches.^ 
There  was  no  special  link  to  bind  them  together, 
except  the  common  use  of  their  old  national  Liturgy 
and  Prayer-book.  The  story  of  that  Liturgy  and  its 
overthrow  we  reserve  for  the  present,  as  it  belongs 
as  much  to  the  history  of  Aragon  and  of  Toledo  as 
to  that  of  Leon,  and  we  are  at  present  more  particu- 
larly engaged  in  tracing  the  character  and  fortunes 
of  the  Church  of  Leon,  for  which  we  must  return  to 
Compostela. 

The  successors  of  Theodomir,  the  happy  discoverer 
of  S.  James,  were — (i)  Adolphus,  a.d.  843,  said  to 
have  been  exposed  by  the  king  to  a  bull,  which 
would  not  hurt  him  because  he  was  innocent  of 
crimes  laid  to  his  charge ;  (2)  Sisnand,  his  nephew, 
A.D.  879,  who  revenged  his  uncle's  wrongs  by  making, 
with  the  king's  leave,  all  the  relations  of  his  accusers 
slaves  of  the  Church  for  ever,  and  who  consecrated 
the  Church  built  by  Alonzo  III.;  (3)  Gundesind,  a.d. 
923,  who,  dying  in  sin,  was  saved  by  his  mother's 
prayers,  fasts,  and  good  works ;  (4)  Hermenigild, 
A.D.  924,  struck  dead  for  his  cruelty  and  gluttony ; 
(5)  Sisnand  II.,  a.d.  952,  deposed  by  King  Sancho  I. 
in  favour  of  Rudesind,  restored   on   Sancho's  death. 


1  "  In  the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries  Spain  was  divided  into  three 
dominions,  and  afterwards,  by  the  multiplication  of  new  kingdoms,  into 
four,  three,  and  six.  The  Churches,  or  rather  provinces,  were  divided 
in  the  same  way.  The  faithful  in  the  Mohammedan  dominions  formed 
one  Church  ;  the  inhabitants  of  Galicia,  Leon,  the  Asturias,  Castile,  and 
Biscay  another;  the  natives  of  Navarre  and  Aragon  another;  the 
Catalonians  and  the  French  of  Narbonnensis  another.  These  Churches 
or  provinces  did  not  communicate  with  one  another.  Each  had  its 
Councils  with  its  own  bishop,  and  did  not  summon  the  others,  looking 
upon  them  as  different  nations  "  (Masdeu,  //zsf.  Crtt.,  xiii.  257). 


NEW  CHURCH  OF  LEON  AND  CASTILE.       303 

and  slain  in  battle  with  some  Norman  ravagers  of 
Galicia;  (6)  Pelayo,  a.d.  977,  deposed  by  King  Ber- 
mudo  II.  for  his  unspiritual  life;  (7)  Peter,  a.d.  986, 
who  was  bishop  during  Almanzor's  raid  into  Galicia, 
and  lived  to  see  his  church  restored  again  by  Bermudo 
after  Almanzor  had  burnt  it ;  (8)  Pelayo  II.,  a.d.  1007, 
deposed  for  his  bad  life,  and  succeeded  by  his  brother 
(9)  Vimara,  who  was  no  better  and  was  drowned  in 
the  Minho ;  (10)  Vistuarius,  a.d.  1016,  deposed  by 
King  Bermudo  III.,  and  imprisoned  for  his  bad  morals; 

(11)  Crescarius,  a.d.  1048,  a  good  soldier,  who  re- 
pelled the  Norman  ravagers  and  fortified  Compostela ; 

(12)  Gudesteus,  a.d.  1075,  killed  in  his  bed  by  his 
uncle,  Count  Froila,  and  torn  limb  from  limb  on 
account  of  a  family  quarrel;  (13)  Diego  Pelaez,  a.d. 
1070,  appointed  by  King  Sancho  II.,  but  deposed  and 
kept  in  prison  for  fifteen  years  by  King  Alonzo  VI. 
for  unecclesiastical  conduct  and  treason. 

In  the  time  of  Diego  Pelaez — that  is,  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  reign  of  Alonzo  VI. — we  are  told  that 
"  the  Toledan  law  was  abolished,  and  the  Roman  law 
received"  (Hist.  Comp.,  i.  2,  12).  What  does  this 
mean  ?  Florez  understands  by  it  the  substitution  of 
the  Roman  for  the  Mozarabic  Liturgy,  but  the  "  Tole- 
dan law "  and  the  ''  Roman  law "  mean  more  than 
that.  They  signify  the  whole  system  of  Roman 
canon  law  as  contrasted  with  that  of  the  old  Spanish 
Church.  It  is  remarkable  that  the  False  Decretals, 
which  were  brought  into  the  Church  in  the  ninth 
century  under  the  name  of  the  Spanish  Bishop  Isidore, 
were  not  recognised  or  acknowledged  in  Spain  until 
the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century.      This  is  proved 


304        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

by  the  Colecion  Escurialense  de  Sagrados  Canones  y 
Decretales,  drawn  up  about  1050.-^  How  did  they 
come  to  be  accepted  ?  The  ''  Roman  law,"  including 
the  canons  of  Roman  Councils  and  the  results  of  the 
False  Decretals  was  adopted  by  the  kingdom  of  Leon 
in  1073,  in  place  of  the  old  '' Toledan  law,"  which  had 
governed  the  Gothic  and  Mozarabic  Church.  The 
main  object  of  the  False  Decretals  was,  as  we  know, 
to  magnify  the  office  of  the  Roman  Pontiff,  and  to 
exhibit  him  as  the  absolute  monarch  of  the  Church, 
interfering  where  he  would,  and  having  a  right  so  to 
interfere,  as  proved  by  the  most  ancient  precedents. 
The  Decretals  had  been  bearing  their  fruit  now  for 
some  two  hundred  years,  and  had  led  Pope  and  people 
into  a  belief  that  the  Roman  prelate  was  invested 
with  the  despotic  power  which  we  see  that  a  Gregory 
VII.  was  honestly  convinced  that  he  had  a  right  to 
wield.  The  substitution,  therefore,  of  the  "  Roman 
law  "  for  the  "  Toledan  law  "  was  a  revolution.  It 
was  the  rejection  of  the  primitive  and  the  acceptance 
of  the  mediaeval  conception  of  the  constitution  of  the 
Church. 

With   the  new  system   there   came  in   the   idea  of 

1  No  single  copy  of  the  False  Decretals  existed  in  Spain  before  the 
invention  of  printing.  *'  El  celebre  Padre  Barriel  que  examino  por  si 
y  por  otros  con  tanto  trabajo  y  diligencia  los  mejores  archives  de 
nuestra  nacion,  tn  carta  dirigida  en  mil  setecientos  cincuenta  y  dos  al 
Padre  Francisco  Ravajo,  Confesor  del  Rey  Don  Fernando  Sexto, 
atestigua  che  en  todos  ellos  no  se  encuentra  hasta  la  invencion  de  la 
imprenia  ni  copia  ni  noticia  de  las  Decretales  inventadas  por  el  falso 
Isidoro,  y  nnmbra  y  elogia  nuestra  Colecion  Escurialense  de  Sagjados 
Canones  y  Decretales,  uscita  a  mitad  del  siglo  once  por  scr  la  mas 
copiosa  de  las  que  hasta  ahora  se  han  publicado,  y  sin  la  menor 
mancha  ni  sombra  di  fabulas  Isidorianas"  (Masdeu,  Hist,  Crii., 
xiii.  278). 


NEW  CHURCH  OF  LEON  AND  CASTILE.       305 

Councils  being  held  by  Papal  legates  for  the  purpose 
of  setting  to  rights  the  affairs  of  National  or  Pro- 
vincial Churches,  and  for  the  first  time  in  history 
a  Roman  cardinal  presided  at  a  Spanish  Council, 
which  was  held  at  Fuselli.  This  Council  took  in 
hand  the  question  of  the  deprived  Bishop  Diego 
Pelaez.  The  bishop  was  worn  out  with  his  long 
imprisonment.  He  placed  the  symbols  of  his  office, 
the  ring  and  pastoral  staff,  in  the  hands  of  the  car- 
dinal, as  a  token  of  his  resignation  ;  and  King  Alonzo, 
with  the  cardinal's  sanction,  appointed  Peter  de  Abba, 
of  the  Monastery  of  Cardena,  to  succeed  him.  The 
matter  seemed  settled  ;  but  Urban  II.  was  not  satisfied 
with  the  course  taken  by  his  legate.  He  was  not 
convinced  that  he  had  done  right  in  degrading  Diego, 
and  he  deprived  him  of  his  legatine  office  for  his  pre- 
cipitancy. Another  cardinal  reopened  the  question 
at  a  Council  held  at  Leon,  and  deposed  Peter.  The 
Church  of  Compostela  was  therefore  without  a  bishop, 
both  Diego  and  Peter  being  deprived.  Its  tempo- 
ralities were  administered  by  a  layman  named  Peter 
Vimara,  and  after  him  by  Diego  Gelmirez,  who  be- 
longed to  the  clerical  order,  but  was  not  yet  even 
a  sub-deacon.  In  1094,  Dalmachius,  a  monk  from 
the  French  Monastery  of  Cluny,  who  was  visiting 
some  of  the  Cluniac  monasteries  in  the  north  of 
Spain,  was  appointed  bishop  by  King  Alonzo,  with 
the  Pope's  assent.  Being  a  Frank  and  a  Cluniac,  his 
sympathies  were  with  the  Roman  Pontiff,  and  those 
of  the  Roman  Pontiff — himself  a  Cluniac  monk — were 
with  him.  Accordingly  he  attended  the  Council  of 
Clermont  in  the  year  1095,  and  obtained   from  Pope 


3c6        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

Urban  a  Bull  confirming  to  the  Bishop  of  Compostela 
all  the  rights  and  possessions  of  the  ancient  See  of 
Iria,  and  "  conceding,"  as  a  privilege  granted  by  the 
Pontiff,  exemption  from  all  metropolitan  control,  im- 
mediate subjection  to  the  Roman  Pontiff,  and — 
greatest  favour  of  all' — that  Dalmachius'  successors 
should  be  consecrated  by  the  hands  of  the  Roman 
Pontiff,  as  his  special  suffragans.  Thus  a  blow 
was  struck  at  the  authority  of  Braga,  Merida, 
and  Toledo,  and  Compostela  was  made  the  instru- 
ment of  introducing  Papal  rule  into  the  Spanish 
Church. 

Dalmachius  dying  at  the  end  of  ten  years,  the 
ex-Bishop  Diego  Pelaez  hurried  to  Rome,  and  prayed 
to  be  restored  to  his  See.  The  matter  was  kept 
unsettled  as  long  as  Urban  lived,  but  on  the  acces- 
sion of  Pascal  II.  the  deposition  of  Diego  Pelaez 
was  finally  confirmed,  and  Pascal  desired  that  a  new 
bishop  should  be  elected,  and  should  be  sent  to  him 
for  consecration.  During  the  four  years  which  were 
occupied  by  these  transactions  Diego  Gelmirez  had 
again  administered  the  temporalities  of  the  See,  and 
he  was  at  this  moment  at  Rome,  where  he  was 
ordained  sub-deacon  by  the  Pope.  Gelmirez  singu- 
larly well  knew,  as  we  shall  see  farther  on,  the  way 
to  obtain  favours  at  Rome,  and  he  returned  with  a 
Papal  rescript  recommending  him  to  the  charity  of 
the  Church  of  Compostela,  and  ordering  that  his 
ordination  at  Rome  in  the  bosom  of  the  Apostolic 
See  should  not  stand  in  the  way  of  his  further  pro- 
motion. He  was  elected  in  the  year  iioo,  and  so 
there    began    an    episcopate   which   was    to    have    so 


NEW  CHURCH  OF  LEON  AND  CASTILE.       307 

sinister  an  effect  on  the  independence  of  the  Leonese 
and,  through  that,  of  the  Spanish  Church.^ 

The  first  noticeable  act  of  the  bishop  was  one  that 
belonged  rather  to  the  age  than  to  the  man.  The 
Bishop  of  Compostela  had  some  ecclesiastical  juris- 
diction over  scattered  churches  and  estates  in  Portugal, 
and  in  the  second  year  of  his  episcopate  Gelmirez 
made  a  visitation  of  them.  He  was  received  at  Braga 
by  Gerald,  the  metropohtan,  now  called,  after  the 
Franco-Italian  style,  archbishop,  and  lodged  in  his 
palace.  Making  this  his  headquarters,  he  went  to 
the  various  churches  with  which  he  was  connected, 
and  he  noticed  that  the  Portuguese  did  not  pay  any 
great  adoration  to  the  bodies  of  the  saints  that  lay 
in  their  churches.  He  also  observed  that  in  many 
cases  it  would  not  be  a  difficult  task  to  carry  them 
away  without  being  discovered.  He  therefore  called 
together  his  clerical  following,  and  said  to  them, 
''  You  see,  dearest  brethren,  that  there  are  here  a  num- 
ber of  bodies  of  the  saints,  which  are  not  venerated 
with  any  worship,  but  are  lying  open  and  exposed  to 
public  view  in  the  churches  ;  and  you  are  aware  that 
they  do  not  enjoy  the  veneration  which  is  their  due. 
If,  in  your  prudence,  you  agree  with  me,  we  will 
amend  this,  and  will  carry  away  to  Compostela  some 
of  the  precious  bodies  of  the  saints  who  have  no 
worship  offered  to  them  here.  But  we  must  do  this 
secretly,  for  fear  the  undisciplined  people  of  the  coun- 

1  The  whole  story  of  Gelmirez  is  derived  from  a  contemporary 
source,  the  Historia  Co^npostelana,  which  was  composed  under  his 
own  eye  by  his  Archdeacon  Hugo,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Portugal ; 
Munio,  who  became  Bishop  of  Mondoiio  ;  and  Gerald,  a  canon  of  the 
cathedral, 

X 


3o8        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN, 

try,  finding  themselves  deprived  of  so  great  a  treasure, 
should  make  a  riot  against  us,  and  so  we  should  have 
to  lament  the  failure  of  our  scheme."     His  clergy  were 
sure  that  the  idea  came  from  Divine  inspiration,  and 
promised  their  help.      Having   settled   their   plan   of 
operations,  they  went  to  the  Church  of  S.  Victor,  and 
while  the  bishop  was  celebrating  Mass  he  had  a  hole 
dug  on  the  right  side  of  the  altar.      There  he  found 
a  marble  chest,  and  in  it  two  little  boxes,  one  con- 
taining relics  of  our  Saviour,  and  the  other  those  of 
a  number  of  saints.      These  boxes  he  closed  again, 
sealed,  and  ''handed   them  over  to  his  faithful  clergy 
to   take   care    of."      The    next   day   he   went   to    the 
Church  of  S.   Susanna  "and   celebrated    Mass    with 
the  deepest  devotion."      When  the  service  was  ended 
he    hurried    in    his    canonicals    to    the    tombs   of    S. 
Cucufat    and   S.    Silvester,    who    were    buried    in   the 
church,    ''and,   without   being    seen,    drew    out   their 
bodies,    which    were   wrapped    in    clean    linen,    from 
their  unworthy  monuments,  and  very  reverently  had 
them    carried    to    his    own    rooms    by    suitable    and 
faithful    attendants,    none    others    knowing   what  he 
was   doing."      Then    he    proceeded    to    the    tomb   of 
S.    Susanna,    "and  with    tears   and    sighs    took    her 
venerable   body,    and    secretly    sent    it   to    be   taken 
care   of  with    the    rest."      Two    days    afterwards    he 
went    to    the  Church   of  S.   Fructuosus,   and    having 
celebrated  high  Mass,  went  in  his  robes  to  the  saint's 
tomb  ;    "  but   as  S.  Fructuosus  was  the  defender  and 
patron   of  that   district,  it  was  with  greater  fear  and 
silence   that  he    took   him   away  by  a  pious  robbery 
from   his  church,  which  he  had  himself  built   in   his 


NEW  CHURCH  OF  LEON  AND  CASTILE.       309 

lifetime,  and  gave  him  to   be  kept  safe  by  his  faithful 
custodians."      The  Historia  proceeds  : — ''  Though  no 
one    knew   what   was   done    except    those   who   had 
made    the    conspiracy,    nevertheless    next    night   the 
•bishop    could  not    sleep    in    comfort,   so    afraid    was 
he  to  lose  that  which  it  was   such  a  joy  to  him  to 
have.       Finding   in   the    morning   that    no    discovery 
had   been   made,  he  hurried  like  a  fugitive  with   his 
hidden   treasure  to  a  town  called  Corneliana,  belong- 
ing   to   S.   James    of    Compostela.       Here    a    public 
rumour  struck   the   pontiff's   ears.      People  said  that 
an   unworthy   deed   was   being   done    by   the   Bishop 
of  S.  James ;    that  he  was   trying  to  carry  off  from 
Portugal   to   his  own   city  the   saints  who  were  the 
defenders  and  patrons  of  the  country.      Hearing  this, 
and  being  a  man  of  the  greatest  prudence  and  ex- 
treme   piety,   fearing   to    lose    his    sacred    burden   by 
some   tumult   or  violence,   he  committed    the    saints' 
bodies  to  a  faithful  archdeacon  of  his,  and  gave  him 
most   sagacious    instructions    for    carrying    them    by 
by-paths    to    the    town    of    Tuy.       So     the    pontiff 
remained  at  Corneliana,  and   the  archdeacon,  follow- 
ing his  instructions,  safely  reached  the  River  Minho, 
on  the  other  side  of  which  Tuy  stands.      For  three 
days  the  river  had  been  so  rough  that  no  boat  could 
cross    it ;    but   when    the    saints'    bodies    were    laid 
upon  the  bank  the  river  seemed  to  feel  a  reverence 
for  them,  for  the  wind  sank  and  the  stormy  weather 
ceased,    and    the   river    offered    all    the    means    that 
smooth  water  could  give  for  transporting  the  bodies. 
So    great   was    the   calm    that    they  were    not    even 
rocked   by  the  waves   in   passing."     When  the  arch- 


3IO        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

deacon  had  passed  the  Minho  he  was  safe,  as  he 
was  now  in  Galician  territory,  so  he  left  the  bodies 
under  the  care  of  the  dean  at  Tuy,  and  came  back 
to  the  bishop  to  tell  him  of  his  success.  The  bishop 
at  once  returned  with  him,  and  conveyed  the  bodies 
in  triumph  through  Galicia.  When  he  came  near 
to  Compostela,  ''the  clergy  and  people  of  Compos- 
tela,  hearing  that  by  the  Divine  mercy  the  bodies 
of  the  saints  had  been  allowed  to  be  translated 
from  Braga  to  Compostela,  rejoiced  mightily ;  for 
they  knew  that  by  their  merits  and  intercession,  and 
the  most  pious  patronage  of  the  blessed  Apostle 
James,  by  the  presence  of  whose  holy  body  the 
town  of  Compostela  is  ennobled,  they  would  be  de- 
livered from  all  pestilences  and  sicknesses."  They 
went  out,  therefore,  to  meet  the  returning  company, 
and  the  bishop  and  his  companions  took  off  their 
shoes,  put  on  their  robes,  and  conducted  the  saints 
with  hymns  and  songs  and  pious  devotions  into  the 
city,  and  laid  them  down  in  the  Church  of  S.  James 
of  Compostela. 

It  is  possible  that  in  these  proceedings  Gelmirez 
was,  half  unconsciously,  condescending  to  the  spirit 
of  the  age  in  which  he  lived.  The  next  scene 
exhibits  him  in  the  character  of  a  turbulent  pre- 
late, led  by  his  ambition  to  embroil  himself  in 
the  political  movements  of  the  time.  Those  were 
disturbed  days.  At  the  beginning  of  his  episco- 
pate Alonzo  VI.  was  king.  Alonzo  died,  and  his 
daughter  Urraca  succeeded  to  the  kingdom  of  Leon. 
Urraca  had  previously  been  married  to  Raymond, 
whom   her   father   had   made  Count   of  Galicia.      Her 


NEW  CHURCH  OF  LEON  AND  CASTILE.       311 

second  husband  was  Alonzo  of  Aragon,  with  whom 
she  was  almost  constantly  at  feud,  and  from  whom 
she  was  divorced  on  the  ground  of  propinquity  by 
Pascal  II.  By  her  first  husband  Urraca  had  a  son, 
who  was  both  christened  and  crowned  by  Gelmirez, 
and  who  came  to  the  throne  under  the  name  of 
Alonzo  VII.  When  the  hand  of  Alonzo  VI.  was 
withdrawn  the  realm  fell  into  utter  confusion,  and 
the  Prelate  of  Compostela  took  his  full  part  in  the 
military  actions  and  political  intrigues  with  which 
it  was  distracted.  Sometimes  he  was  co-operating 
with  Urraca,  sometimes  fighting  against  her  ;  some- 
times he  was  supporting  her  son,  sometimes  settling 
terms  of  reconciliation  between  him  and  his  mother; 
sometimes  he  was  at  the  head  of  the  Galician  troops, 
laying  siege  to  the  enemy's  fortresses,  sometimes 
he  was  attacked  by  his"  own  people  in  his  episcopal 
palace.  Generally  he  was  on  the  winning  side,  for 
he  was  a  man  of  great  sagacity,  and  his  ecclesiastical 
character  protected  him;  but  in  the  year  11 16  the 
faction  opposed  to  him  in  Compostela  very  nearly 
brought  about  his  destruction.  For  the  moment  the 
queen,  her  son,  and  the  bishop  were  all  good  friends, 
having  made  peace  with  one  another  and  bound 
themselves  together  in  an  alliance  against  Aragon. 
It  appeared  to  be  a  good  opportunity  for  crushing 
the  bishop's  adversaries  in  Compostela.  The  queen 
and  the  bishop  led  their  forces  into  the  town,  and 
the  young  king  encamped  close  by  with  a  consider- 
able army.  At  first  the  citizens  were  terror-struck 
and  took  sanctuary  in  the  churches.  At  the  queen's 
suggestion    the    bishop    made    proclamation    that    all 


312        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

who  took  sanctuary  must  give  up  their  arms.  The 
citizens  burst  into  a  roar  of  rage  at  such  an  inno- 
vation on  their  privileges,  pursued  the  messengers 
who  came  to  announce  the  bishop's  orders  into  the 
clerestories  and  towers  of  the  churches,  and  then, 
opening  the  church-doors,  rushed  through  the  city, 
assembled  their  friends,  and  shouting  execrations 
against  the  bishop  and  the  queen,  surged  up  to  the 
episcopal  palace  and  fiercely  assaulted  it,  as  well 
as  the  Church  of  S.  James,  in  which  they  were  sup- 
posed to  have  taken  refuge.  Stones,  arrows,  javelins, 
were  not  enough ;  they  set  fire  to  the  cathedral  and 
palace  in  hope  of  burning  the  bishop  and  the  queen 
within  their  walls.  The  bishop  and  the  queen  fled 
to  a  tower  attached  to  the  episcopal  residence,  while 
the  mob  burst  into  the  palace  and  plundered  it,  and 
then  made  an  assault  upon  the  tower.  The  bishop's 
soldiers  kept  back  the  assailants  for  a  time,  but  at 
length  means  were  found  to  set  the  tower  on  fire, 
and  the  flames,  fed  from  below  with  oil,  ran  up 
furiously  round  its  walls.  The  queen  turned  in 
terror  to  the  bishop — ''  Come  away,  come  away, 
father,  and  take  me  out  of  this  fire  with  you. 
Surely  they  will  spare  you  as  their  patron,  bishop, 
and  lord."  ''That  is  not  good  counsel,"  said  the 
bishop  ;  ''  they  hate  me  and  my  party,  and  are  pant- 
ing for  our  death."  The  mob  shouted  that  the 
queen  might  come  out,  but  all  the  rest  should  perish 
in  the  fire.  There  was  nothing  else  to  be  done,  and 
the  queen  came  out  alone.  The  mob  made  a  rush 
at  her,  threw  her  to  the  ground,  tore  her  dress  from 
her  back,  and   cast  mud  upon  her,  and  an  old  woman 


MEW  CHURCH  OF  LEON  AND  CASTILE.       313 

struck  her  on  the  face  with  a  stone.  But  it  was 
not  the  queen  who  was  the  object  of  their  intensest 
hatred.  They  stood  round,  rejoicing  that  the  bishop 
was  being  consumed  in  the  burning  tower.  Gelmirez 
was  at  first  paralysed  with  terror,  but  he  determined 
to  make  one  last  effort  for  his  life.  He  took  off  his 
episcopal  dress,  and  borrowing  the  oldest  cassock 
that  he  could  see,  he  took  a  crucifix  in  his  hands,  and 
holding  it  close  before  his  face,  passed  through  the 
crowd  unrecognised,  and  reached  the  Church  of  S. 
Mary  safely,  passing  the  queen  still  lying  in  the 
street.  Presently  the  queen  reached  the  same  place 
of  refuge ;  some  of  her  partisans  gathered  round 
her,  and  she  sent  them  to  extinguish  the  fire  at  the 
tower.  They  were  too  late.  Had  the  bishop  still 
been  there  he  would  have  been  reduced  to  ashes. 
All  those  whom  he  left  behind  him  had  either  escaped 
or  perished.  Among  those  who  were  killed  in  at- 
tempting to  escape  were  Gelmirez'  brother,  his  major- 
domo,  his  seneschal,  and  his  bailiff.  The  bishop, 
not  feeling  himself  safe  in  S.  Mary's  Church,  climbed 
the  walls,  and  getting  on  the  roofs  of  the  houses, 
passed  over  them  till  he  reached  the  house  of  one 
Marinus,  into  which  he  crept  by  a  window,  and  was 
covered  by  a  heap  of  rags  and  bedclothes.  Almost  im- 
mediately four  soldiers  presented  themselves.  "  Any 
one  hiding  here  ?  What  are  you  doing  ?  Have  you 
seen  anything  of  the  man  we  are  looking  for — the 
bishop  ?  "  The  bishop  kept  quite  still.  Two  French- 
men who  had  come  with  him  assured  the  soldiers 
that  they  were  only  resting  after  the  tumult,  and 
the  lady  of  the  house  assailed   them  with  loud  cries 


314        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

and  drove  them  out  of  the  house,  declaring  that 
they  were  trespassers  and  spies.  As  soon  as 
they  were  gone  this  lady's  son-in-law,  named  Gun- 
disalv,  rushed  into  the  house  and  roused  the  bishop. 
"  Fly,  father  !  Fly,  my  lord  !  Go  and  hide  yourself. 
A  body  of  conspirators  is  looking  everywhere  for 
you,  thirsting  for  your  blood,  after  shedding  that 
of  the  others.  I  saw  them  coming  here  with 
swords  and  clubs.  Away  quickly  !  There  is  not 
a  moment  to  lose.  God  alone  can  save  you  from 
the  hands  of  the  villains,  and  from  their  open  jaws." 
With  these  words  Gundisalv  broke  through  the  par- 
titions between  his  house  and  the  next  and  the  next 
and  the  next.  The  fourth  house  belonged  to  a  friend 
of  the  bishop  named  Froyla,  but  he  was  out,  and  his 
wife  screamed  with  terror  at  the  burglary  which  she 
supposed  was  being  attempted.  Gundisalv  assured 
her  that  he  was  bringing  in  a  friend  of  her  husband's 
for  concealment ;  and  Froyla  entering  at  the  moment, 
carried  the  bishop  at  once  down  into  the  cellar, 
"where  for  a  long  time  they  shed  tears  in  the  dark- 
ness." Presently  a  secret  message  was  brought  to 
the  bishop  that  there  were  1500  men  ready  to  put 
themselves  under  his  command,  if  he  would  meet 
them  at  a  certain  spot.  The  bishop  prudently  said 
that  he  would  come  to-morrow,  and  forbade  the  place 
of  his  refuge  to  be  made  known.  It  turned  out  that 
the  message  was  part  of  a  plot  to  lay  hands  on  him. 
Having  stayed  in  the  cellar  during  the  day,  the 
bishop  crept  out  at  nightfall,  and  got  to  the  Church 
and  Monastery  of  S.  Pelayo,  where  the  abbot  and  the 
bursar  hid   him  in  the   bursary  and   gave  him  some- 


NEW  CHURCH  OF  LEON  AND  CASTILE.       315 

thing  to  eat.  The  next  day  was  Sunday,  and  in  the 
morning  the  heads  of  the  popular  party  presented 
themselves  before  the  queen,  and  told  her  that  their 
quarrel  was  not  so  much  with  her,  and  that  they  were 
willing  to  come  to  terms,  with  one  proviso.  ^*  We 
will  not  have  Diego  Gelmirez  for  our  bishop.  To 
a  man  we  are  his  enemies,  for  up  to  this  moment  he 
has  oppressed  us,  and  trampled  upon  the  dignity  of 
our  Church  and  city  ;  therefore  we  all  hate  him,  and 
will  not  have  him  to  reign  over  us."  The  queen 
answered,  "  What  is  your  bishop  to  me  ?  Decide 
about  him  as  you  will.  Your  pleasure  is  mine.  I 
will  nominate  your  nominee,  for  I  am  altogether  with 
you."  As  soon  as  they  had  withdrawn  she  sent  a 
message  to  the  bishop,  telling  him  that  she  was  pre- 
pared to  say  anything  and  to  swear  anything,  and 
make  others  swear  anything  in  her  behalf,  and  to 
become  herself  and  to  make  others  for  her  guilty  of 
perjury,  so  that  she  could  escape  from  the  city,  and 
then  "  she  would  return  evil  for  evil  to  the  con- 
spirators, as  they  deserved."  ''  Hearing  which,  the 
bishop  was  glad."  The  oath  was  taken,  accordingly, 
by  the  queen  and  by  all  her  chief  nobles,  and  she  was 
allowed  to  leave  the  city  and  join  her  son's  camp 
outside  the  walls.  As  soon  as  she  had  reached  it 
she  sent  word  that  she  renounced  her  oath,  and 
would  revenge  herself  for  all  that  she  had  gone 
through. 

During  this  important  day  the  bishop  had  re- 
mained concealed  in  the  bursary  of  S.  Pelayo.  In 
the  evening  the  mob  came  to  search  the  monastery. 
"  Let  us  fly,  Michael,"  said  the  bishop  to   his  com- 


3i6        HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIM. 

panion,  Canon  Michael.  "  Let  us  get  out  quick ! 
You  put  on  the  bishop's  cloak,  and  I  will  wear  this 
very  old  cassock.  They  are  running  here  and  there; 
let  us  run  too.  They  are  hurrying  about ;  let  us 
hurry.  In  the  midst  of  those  who  are  going  in  and 
going  out,  let  us  get  out.  God  alone  can  deliver  us, 
if  He  will."  The  bishop  and  Michael  made  their 
way  from  the  bursary  into  the  cloister  ;  thence  into 
a  second  cloister,  from  which  they  climbed  a  wall  and 
got  safely  into  the  canons'  dormitory  along  the  tiles. 
After  resting  here  a  little  while  they  went  down 
and  out  into  the  court.  It  was  bright  moonlight, 
and  men  were  running  hither  and  thither,  conveying 
their  goods  into  churches,  where  they  hoped  to  take 
sanctuary  from  the  vengeance  of  the  queen.  The 
bishop  and  Michael  made  their  way  to  the  house  of  a 
canon  named  Peter ;  Michael  knocked,  and  the  bishop 
glided  in.  It  so  happened  that  Peter  had  some  of 
his  brother-canons  at  dinner  with  him,  whom  the 
bishop  distrusted.  He  got  rid  of  them  as  soon  as 
he  could,  and  then  led  his  guests  through  the  house, 
and  let  them  out  by  another  door.  He  advised  the 
bishop  to  dress  himself  in  armour  ;  but  as  he  would 
not  do  that,  he  sent  two  armed  men,  who  walked  one 
on  either  side  of  him,  while  Michael  walked  behind. 
As  they  neared  the  gates  the  picket  challenged  the 
party.  "  Who  are  you  ?  Where  are  you  going  ? 
What  do  you  want  ? "  "  We  are  going  outside," 
said  one  of  the  men,  to  whom  the  bishop  had  given 
his  cue,  "  to  be  on  the  watch,  that  the  enemy  may 
not  attack  us  unawares.  You  ought  to  be  keeping 
watch  ;   you  ought  to  be  up  and  stirring.      What  are 


NEW  CHURCH  OF  LEON  AND  CASTILE.       317 

you  stopping  here  for,  resting  lazily  ?  Up  !  Be 
active  !  Be  moving  !  Mind  your  watch  !  "  Under 
the  cover  of  these  exclamations  they  were  allowed  to 
pass  the  barrier.  The  bishop  and  his  companions 
walked  some  miles,  till  they  reached  a  place  where  it 
was  safe  to  desire  one  of  his  bailiffs  to  provide  him 
with  a  carriage,  on  which  he  mounted,  and  was 
driven  safely  to  Iria.  PI  is  first  act  on  arriving  was 
to  inform  the  queen  of  his  safety  ;  his  next  was  to 
pronounce  a  sentence  of  excommunication  on  all  the 
inhabitants  of  Compostela,  shutting  them  out  from 
the  Church,  by  which  he  "  wounded  the  men  of  Com- 
postela to  the  marrow  and  totally  prostrated  them  ; " 
the  third  was  to  assemble  his  forces  and  join  them  to 
those  of  the  queen,  the  young  king,  and  the  Galician 
nobles.  Compostela  found  itself  blockaded  ''on 
the  side  of  the  Rocky  Mountain "  by  the  king  and 
his  governor;  on  the  side  of  Iria  by  the  bishop 
''with  a  vast  army  of  horsemen  and  an  infinite 
number  of  foot-soldiers ;  "  on  the  side  of  "  the 
sacred  mount  of  S.  Peter's  Monastery  of  Penellse" 
by  other  large  bodies  of  troops.  The  citizens  found 
their  case  hopeless,  and  asked  for  terms.  After  long 
negotiations  it  was  arranged  that  they  should  pay 
1 100  silver  marks,  besides  making  good  to  the 
bishop  and  the  queen  all  that  had  been  damaged,  and 
that  a  hundred  men  should  be  proscribed.  The 
bishop  sat  on  his  throne  again,  and  ordered  the 
Church  of  S.  James  and  his  own  palace  to  be  rebuilt 
at  the  expense  of  the  city. 

The   great  object  of   Bishop   Diego  Gelmirez'   life 
was   the  aggrandisement   of  his   See.      He   acknow- 


3i8        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

ledges  this,  and  his  biographers  boast  that  it  was  the 
purpose  of  all  his  acts,  and  that  he  succeeded  in  that 
purpose.      "  He  always  everywhere  panted  with  un- 
wearied  solicitude   for  the  dignity  and  augmentation 
of  his  Church,"  says  the  Historia.      He  had  a  perfect 
genius  for  getting  farms,  lands,  villages,  towns,  given 
to  the  See  of  S.  James.      He  never  forgot  them,  and 
never  failed  to  ask  when  there  was  a  chance  of  secur- 
ing them.     But  he  had  other  and  more  efficient  means 
than  begging  at  his  disposal.     Those  were  rough,  wild 
days,  and  the  land  was  full  of  rough,  wild  men,  ready 
at  any  moment  for  rough,  wild  deeds ;   but  yet  these 
men  were  devout  believers  in  God  and  in  S.  James. 
When   conscience   accused    them   of  any   more   than 
usually   outrageous  act  they   came   to  the  bishop   to 
make  their  peace  with  the  Church,  and  this  they  were 
allowed  to  do  by  transferring  part  of  their  estates  to 
the  patrimony   of  S.   James.       For    example  :   Count 
Peter   struck    Count   Alonzo    within    the    Church    of 
S.  James.     Then  he  came  with  his  wife  to  the  bishop 
and   confessed   that  and  other  crimes  which,    at   the 
instigation  of  the  devil,  he  had  committed,  and  asked 
for  penance  and  counsel  for  his  soul's  salvation.     The 
bishop  gave  him  a  penance,  and  desired  him  to  give 
an  estate  to  God   and   S.  James  in  remcdmm  peccato- 
rum.      Therefore    the    count    and    his   wife   gave   the 
Monastery  of  Corispind,  with  all  the  souls  belonging 
to  it,  and  the  whole  town   to  the  blessed  James  and 
his  church  for  a  perpetual  possession.^      Numbers  of 
grants  of  land  are  reported  as  made  pro  salute  auimce, 
for  the  salvation  of  the  donor's  soul.      Sometimes  the 

1  Hist.  Comp„\\.  69. 


NEW  CHURCH  OF  LEON  AND  CASTILE.       319 

souls  of  others  are  also  to  be  saved  by  the  donation. 
Alonzo  VII.  grants  '^a  privilege"  to  the  See,  ''for 
a  remedy  for  my  father's  soul,  and  the  salvation  of 
my  soul,  and  the  remission  of  my  sins,  and  the 
refreshment  and  absolution  of  all  my  ancestors."^ 
Nor  was  it  lands  and  tenements  only  that  the  bishop 
accepted.  On  one  occasion  King  Alonzo  VII.  squeezed 
a  large  subsidy  out  of  the  bishop,  which  he  gave  with 
tears  and  groans.  But  even  here  he  was  no  loser. 
As  soon  as  he  had  promised  to  give  the  amount 
demanded,  he  reproachfully  reminded  the  king  that 
he  had  baptized  him,  anointed  him  king,  and  put  on 
him  his  knightly  armour.  "But  I  must  have  the 
money  for  my  soldiers,"  said  the  king.  "  What  can 
I  do?"  ''You  can  promise  to  be  buried  in  our 
church,"  said  the  bishop,  "  and  you  can  console  the 
Church  of  S.  James  by  presenting  it  with  a  gift  or 
benefice."  If  he  would  do  this,  he  should  have  the 
advantage  of  the  third  part  of  the  Masses  said  at  the 
altar  of  S.  James,  mention  should  be  made  of  his  soul 
and  he  should  be  prayed  for  at  the  General  Synod, 
and  after  his  death  a  special  Mass  should  be  said 
every  week  for  the  remedy  of  his  soul  (pro  animce 
tuce  remedid)  in  the  church.  The  king  consented,  and 
allowed  himself  to  be  elected  a  member  of  the  Chapter. 
Then  the  signification  of  the  request  as  to  his  burial 
became  clear.  One  of  the  canons  rose  and  said 
that  all  good  princes  gave  an  estate  for  keeping 
the  annual  memorial  of  their  funeral,  and  he  hoped 
that,  for  the  advantage  and  salvation  of  his  soul, 
the  king  would  follow  their  example  and  give  some 
^  Hist.  Coinp.,  ii.  92. 


320        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

estate  or  possession  to  the  Church  of  S.  James.  The 
king  could  not  refuse ;  he  granted  on  the  spot  the 
Fort  of  S.  George,  appointing  that  the  present  tenant 
should  do  homage  for  it  to  the  bishop  and  Chapter, 
and  that  after  the  tenant's  death  it  should  become  the 
freehold  of  the  See.  He  also  gave  the  mediety  of 
another  estate,  and  at  the  bishop's  request,  handed 
over  to  him  the  nomination  of  his  chief  chaplain  and 
his  chancellor.  Finding  that  royal  funerals  were  to 
his  advantage,  the  bishop  then  prayed  the  Infanta 
to  be  buried  at  Compostela  likewise,  to  which  she 
assented,  promising  at  the  same  time  the  gift  of 
S.  Michael  de  Escalata,  a  rich  monastery  adjacent 
to  Leon,  with  a  number  of  farms  belonging  to  it. 
The  Queen  of  Portugal  followed  suit.  From  Queen 
Urraca  he  received  many  donations  in  requital  for 
political  services,  and  she  brought  him  a  gift  of 
another  nature,  the  head  of  S.  James,  which  the 
bishop  laid  on  the  altar  of  his  church,  and  which 
was  thenceforward  preserved  in  a  silver  casket.^ 

1  Urraca  became  possessed  of  S.  James's  head  in  ihe  following  way  :— 
Maurice,  Bishop  of  Coimbra  and  afterwards  of  Braga,  was  paying  a 
visit  to  Jerusalem.  He  heard  from  an  old  priest  that  a  little  church 
near  the  city  contained  this  relic.  Maurice  tried  to  bribe  the  old  man 
to  let  him  have  it,  frequenting  the  church,  and  often  attending  vigils 
there.  But  the  custodians  were  always  present,  so  he  made  a  plan 
that  two  of  his  clergy  should  feign  sickness,  and  for  the  relief  of  that 
sickness  should  offer  wax-candles  to  the  church  and  spend  the  night  in 
it.  Seizing  an  opportunity  when  no  one  was  there  in  the  middle  of 
the  night,  they  shut  the  doors,  took  out  some  spades  which  they  had 
previously  hidden  there,  and  dug  up  from  under  the  altar  an  ivory  box 
containing  a  silver  box  full  of  relics,  of  which  they  took  possession, 
and  getting  safely  out  of  the  church,  they  and  the  bishop  ran  full  speed 
to  Jerusalem.  As  they  were  going  a  hermit  called  to  them,  and  said, 
"  I  know,  dearest  brethren,  what  it  is  that  you  are  carrying,  and  what 
a  precious  treasure  you  have  stolen.  Go,  and  the  grace  of  God  go 
with  you,  for  the  Apostle's  head   ought   to  be  where  his  body  is." 


NEW  CHURCH  OF  LEON  AND  CASTILE.       321 

But  if  Bishop  Diego  Gelmirez  showed  a  skill  and 
power  which  his  biographers  think  so  admirable  in 
amassing  money,  it  was  not  for  the  money's  sake  that 
he  did  it.  He  was  no  miser.  He  had  an  object 
before  him,  the  object  of  his  life,  and  that,  he  knew, 
could  not  be  obtained  without  money.  His  object 
was  to  raise  his  See,  first  to  metropolitical  power, 
then  to  an  equality  with  Toledo,  and  finally  to  make 
it  the  Primatial  See  of  the  new  Spanish  Church 
which  was  about  to  swallow  up  the  Mozarabic  shadow 
of  the  old  Church  of  Spain,  and  a  rival  of  Rome  her- 
self. In  his  first  two  attempts  he  was  successful, 
and  the  means  of  his  success  were  gold. 

The  bishop  began  by  setting  his  own  house  in 
order.  There  were  seven  men  who,  in  imitation 
of  Rome,  were  called   cardinals.      Diego   Pelaez   had 

These  words  '*  made  the  bishop  see  that  the  Holy  Spirit  had  revealed 
what  he  had  done  to  the  servant  of  God."  He  set  off  at  once  for 
Spain,  and  deposited  the  relic  in  the  Church  of  S.  Zoilus  at  Carrion, 
whence  it  was  taken  by  Urraca  to  Leon  and  presented  to  Gelmirez, 
The  bishop  received  it  with  the  greatest  joy.  Clergy  and  people  came 
out  from  Compostela  to  meet  him  as  he  brought  the  sacred  treasure. 
He  and  the  canons  walked  with  bare  feet  before  it,  singing  psalms. 
*'  How  the  people  danced  !  "  says  Canon  Gerard,  an  eye-witness  ;  "and 
I  myself,  coming  back  with  the  bishop,  burst  into  tears  through  too 
much  joy."  There  is  not  a  hint  that  the  writer  of  this  part  of  the 
Historia  Compostelana  had  an  idea  that  the  head  was  any  other  than 
that  of  "  the  blessed  Apostle  James  "  the  son  of  Zebedee.  But  later 
writers  found,  to  their  dismay,  that  the  Bishops  of  Portugal  and  Mon- 
doiio,  who  wrote  the  first  part  of  the  Historia,  had  specially  and  empha- 
tically stated  that  Pope  Leo  HL  had  testified  (the  extant  letter  assigned 
to  him  does  not  contain  this  testimony)  that  the  whole  body,  zvith  the 
head,  had  been  carried  from  Palestine  into  Spain — integrum  corpus  cum 
capite.  What  was  to  be  done  ?  There  was  another  S.  James — S.  James 
the  Less — and  the  Bishop  of  Tuy  convinced  himself,  in  the  middle  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  that  this  was  his  head,  because  it  had  a  "con- 
tusion "  on  it,  which  no  doubt  was  caused  by  the  fuller's  pole  with 
wliich  S.  James  the  Less  was  struck  sixteen  hundred  years  previously 
i^Esp.  Sagr.,  xix.  252). 


322         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

added  twenty-four  canons,  and  Diego  Gelmirez  raised 
the  number  to  seventy-two.  He  laid  down  strict 
rules  as  to  their  dress  and  behaviour  in  the  choir, 
and  he  divided  the  days  of  the  year  between  them,  so 
that  each  had  his  special  time  for  ministering,  and 
a  regular  allowance  was  made  to  each.  Finding 
among  them  too  much  national  sentiment  and  loyalty 
to  the  traditions  of  the  old  Spanish  Church  to  suit 
his  purpose,  "  he  apphed  his  mind  to  implanting  at 
Compostela  the  customs  of  the  French  Church,"  ^  and 
sent  the  ablest  young  men  among  them  to  Cluny 
(which  was  in  those  days  the  headquarters  of  Ultra- 
montanism)  and  elsewhere  in  France  for  education 
in  the  Roman  system.  For  he  saw  that  if  he  were 
to  climb  to  the  eminence  to  which  he  aspired,  it  must 
be  by  the  help  of  Rome.  When  he  had  by  this 
means  attained  to  the  Spanish  Primacy,  it  would  be 
time  for  him  to  see  whether  the  Apostolic  See  of  S. 
James  might  not  rival  even  that  of  S.  Peter.  Down 
to  the  beginning  of  his  episcopate  we  are  told  that 
"  almost  the  whole  of  Spain  was  rude  and  illiterate ; 
for  not  one  of  the  Spanish  bishops  at  that  time 
showed  any  submission  or  obedience  to  our  mother, 
the  Holy  Roman  Church.  Spain  accepted  the  law  of 
Toledo,  not  the  law  of  Rome.  But  when  Alonzo  VI. 
imposed  upon  the  Spaniards  the  Roman  law  and  Roman 
customs,  from  that  time  the  cloud  of  ignorance  was 
dissipated  and  the  power  of  the  Holy  Church  began 
to  break  among  the  Spaniards."  ^  As  an  example  of 
Spanish-  rudeness  is  quoted  the  case  of  a  cardinal 
legate  of  the  Holy  See  who  came  to  Spain  ''in  the 

1  //?>/.   Com/.,  li.  2.  ^  Il'id.,  ii.  i. 


NEW  CHURCH  OF  LEON  AND  CASTILE.       323 

time  when  the  law  of  Toledo  prevailed,"  to  look  into 
the  state  of  religion  in  the  country.  When  he  gave 
notice  of  his  approaching  visit  to  Compostela,  the 
bishop  sent  the  bursar  to  meet  him,  and  desired  him 
to  show  just  so  much  respect  and  attention  to  the 
representative  of  Rome  in  Spain  as  the  Roman 
Church  paid  to  a  representative  of  Compostela  in 
Italy.  This  act  of  independence,  the  Abbot  of  Cluny 
told  Gelmirez,  had  done  infinite  mischief  to  Com- 
postela at  Rome.  "  For  when  the  Roman  Church, 
which  is  the  mother  of  all  Churches,  heard  that,  it 
unanimously  passed  a  resolution  that  the  Church  of 
Compostela  should  never,  with  its  consent,  be  further 
elevated."  -^  Gelmirez  determined  not  to  commit  the 
same  fault  as  his  predecessor,  until  he  had  got  from 
Rome  all  that  could  be  obtained  from  her. 

His  first  aim  was  to  obtain  the  pallium.  Pope 
Urban  had  refused  Dalmachius,  but  Gelmirez  journeyed 
to  Rome,  disguised  as  a  soldier,  to  petition  for  it,  and 
when  he  arrived  sent  his  clergy  (we  shall  presently 
see  what  this  means)  to  all  the  cardinals,  as  the 
Abbot  of  Cluny  had  advised  him,  to  remove  all  ill- 
feeling  towards  him  "  from  the  tenacious  memory  of 
the  Roman  cardinals."  The  interviews  of  his  clergy 
with  the  cardinals  had  the  effect  of  making  them 
all  pray  the  Pope  to  give  him  the  pallium,  with  which, 
accordingly,  he  returned  to  Compostela,  Pope  Pascal 
reminding  him  that  he  and  his  Church  were  thereby 
for  ever,  and  more  than  ever,  debtors  to  the  Apostolic 
See,  and  making  him  take  the  following  oath  of 
obedience :  — "  From    this    time    forward    I    will    be 

*  HisL  Comp.,  i.  16. 


324        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

faithful   to  S.  Peter  and  the   Holy  Roman   Apostolic 
Church,  and  to  my  Lord  Pope  Pascal  and  his  canonical 
successors.      I    will    have    nothing    to    do    with   any 
counsel  or  deed  which  shall  be  to  their  injury  in  life, 
limb,   or   liberty.       I   will   never   betray  any   counsel 
committed    to    me     by     them    or    their    nuncios,    to 
their  damage.      Saving  my  own   Order,   I    will  give 
my    assistance    against    all   men    in    maintaining    the 
Roman    Papacy    and     the    Royalties     of    S.    Peter.^ 
When   summoned    to   a    Synod   I   will    come,    unless 
necessarily    prevented.       I    will     treat    with    honour 
the   legate  whom   I   know   to    be   the    legate   of   the 
Apostolic   See.      Every   three   years   I   will  visit   the 
threshold  of  the  apostles   in   person  or  by  my  dele- 
gates,   unless    I    receive    a   license    to    the    contrary. 
So    help    me,    God    and    these    holy  Gospels."      We 
have    gone    far    indeed    from    the    time    of    Primate 
Julian.      On    his    return    to    Compostela    the    bishop 
made  each  of  the  canons   take  an  oath  of  obedience 
to  himself,  thus  framed  :   "  I  [N.]  swear  to  you,  Don 
Diego,   my   present   bishop,    by   God,  the   Father  Al- 
mighty, that  from  the  present  day  and  henceforward 
I  will  be  obedient   and  faithful  to  you  in  all  things, 
and   I  will  defend   you   in    life   and  limb,   and  in   all 
the  possessions  which   you   have   or  shall   have,  and 
without  fraud   and  ill  intent   I   will  exalt  you  to  the 
best   of   my   power    and   ability   all    the  days  of  my 

1  This  is  one  of  the  very  first  instances  of  the  imposition  of  the  oath 
to  maintain  the  Royalties  of  S.  Peter.  Down  to  this  time  the  oath  of 
a  bishop,  when  taken  at  all,  was  to  maintain  the  rules  of  the  Holy 
Fathers.  A'egalia  Sancti  Petri  was  substituted  for  Regitlas  Sanctorum 
Patrtim,  and  made  compulsory  by  this  very  Tope,  Pascal  II.,  a.d. 
1099-1118.  It  is  now  universally  taken  by  prelates  of  the  Roman 
Church. 


NEW  CHURCH  OF  LEON  AND  CASTILE.       325 

life.  So  help  me,  God  and  these  holy  Gospels." 
This  oath  was  taken  at  a  subsequent  date  by  the 
Roman  cardinal,  Deusdedit,  and  by  King  Alonzo  VII., 
both  of  whom  became  canons  of  Compostela. 

Gelmirez  had  succeeded  in  getting  the  pallium, 
but  "  his  mind  always  panted  for  the  archiepisco- 
pate."  1  How  should  he  attain  to  it  ?  His  great 
difficulty  was  the  jealous  fear  entertained  at  Rome 
lest  when  he  had  succeeded  he  should  throw  off  the 
mask  and  defy  the  Papacy.  "  What  especially  pre- 
vented him  from  obtaining  it  was  this  :  the  Romans 
resisted  his  petition,  saying  that  '  already  the  Church 
of  Compostela  had  been  proud  and  arrogant  towards 
us ;  already  it  has  looked  upon  the  Roman  Church, 
not  as  its  mistress,  but  as  an  equal,  and  has  been 
unwilling  to  serve  her.  This  bishop,  as  he  shows 
so  much  humihty  and  obsequiousness  towards  us  at 
a  time  when  humility  carries  all  before  it,  must 
persevere  in  his  humility  and  obsequiousness  if  he 
is  to  succeed  with  -  our  consent.'  For,  indeed,  the 
Roman  Church  feared  lest  the  Church  of  Compos- 
tela, resting  on  so  great  an  apostle,  if  it  gained 
ecclesiastical  dignity,  might  assume  to  itself  the 
primacy  of  honour  in  the  Western  Churches  ;  and  as 
the  Roman  Church  stood  first,  and  ruled  over  the 
other  Churches  on  account  of  one  apostle,  so  the 
Church  of  Compostela  might  make  itself  first  and 
rule  over  the  Western  Churches  on  account  of  its 
apostle.  This  is  what  the  Roman  Church  was  afraid 
of,  and  at  this  day  fears,  and  is  taking  precautions 
against     for    the    future."  ^     There    were    only    two 

^  I/isl.  Comp.,  ii.  4.  2  ibid.,  iii.  3. 


means  of  conquering  this  feeling,  obsequiousness  and 
gold  ;   Bishop  Diego  Gelmirez  offered  both. 

In  the  month  of  January  Iii8  Gelasius  succeeded 
Pascal  as  Pope,  and  Gelmirez  seized  this  occasion  to 
press  his  claim  for  the  archbishopric.  The  oppor- 
tunity was  favourable,  for  the  matter  had  been  dis- 
cussed with  Gelasius  while  he  was  a  cardinal,  and  the 
See  of  Braga,  whose  honours  it  was  hoped  to  trans- 
fer to  Compostela,  had  given  deadly  offence  to  the 
new  Pope.  Two  of  the  canons  of  Compostela  at  once 
presented  themselves  before  Gelasius.  "  I  know,  I 
know,"  he  cried  out,  "  what  you  want,  brethren  ;  to 
rob  the  Church  of  Braga  of  its  archbishopric,  and 
to  elevate  the  Church  of  S.  James  !  I  have  often 
talked  it  over  with  my  predecessor  when  and  how 
it  could  properly  be  done.  Now  the  time  is  come ; 
for  the  Church  of  Braga  has  produced  a  shameful 
offence  against  the  Roman  Church  in  Maurice,  who 
has  allowed  the  sacrilegious  German  Emperor  to  set 
him  up  as  an  idol  in  the  church  for  his  own  con- 
fusion, whom  the  whole  Catholic  Church  abhors  and 
detests.-^  Go  your  ways.  If  your  bishop  will  send 
us  special  messengers  on  the  subject,  we  will  answer 
him  fully  and  as  he  wishes.  Tell  him  what  you  find 
to  be  my  mind  towards  him.  I  will  write  myself." 
Accordingly,  he  despatched  a  favourable  letter  to 
Gelmirez,  in  which  he  did  not  fail  to  ask  him  to 
"  remember  the  Roman  Church,  and  subsidise  her 
needs  with  due  charity."  The  receipt  of  this  letter 
made  Gelmirez  very  happy.      He   called  together  the 

1  Maurice,  Bishop  of  Coimbra  and  Archbishop  of  Braga,  had  been 
made  Antipope. 


NEW  CHURCH  OF  LEON  AND  CASTILE.       327 

Chapter,  and  reminding  them  how  long  and  how 
hard  he  had  laboured  and  panted  for  the  elevation  of 
the  See,  appointed  the  Prior  and  one  of  the  Cardinals 
of  Compostela  to  go  at  once  to  Rome,  as  the  Pope 
desired.  Before  starting  he  supplied  them  with  128 
ounces  of  gold  from  a  gold  plate  which  had  formed 
the  top  of  a  disused  altar.  In  passing  through 
Aragon  the  two  canons,  though  they  had  dressed 
themselves  as  pilgrims,  were  stopped,  and  the  gold 
which  they  were  carrying  was  taken  from  them. 
Gelmirez  was  grieved  at  the  loss  of  the  money,  but, 
without  being  disheartened,  appointed  a  bishop  and 
a  canon  named  Gerard  (one  of  the  authors  of  the 
Historia  Compostellana)  to  make  a  second  attempt, 
giving  them  from  S.  James's  treasury  lOO  ounces  of 
gold  as  "a  benediction "  for  the  Pope.  The  two 
messengers  dressed  themselves  as  labourers,  but  they 
could  not  get  through  Aragon,  so  they  sent  on  half 
the  money  by  the  Prior  of  Carrion,  who,  not  being 
suspected,  reached  Gelasius  in  safety.  At  this  time 
there  arrived  at  Compostela  a  Roman  cardinal  named 
Deusdedit,  and  he  was  at  once  made  a  canon  of  S. 
James,  and  a  canonical  allowance  was  .assigned  to 
him,  ''  which,  we  saw,  would  be  very  profitable  to  our 
church  and  bishop."  Everything  was  looking  well, 
when  Gelasius  died  (January  11 19).  The  bishop 
who  had  set  out  to  meet  the  Pope  in  Auvergne, 
where  he  hoped  that  his  wishes  would  be  consum- 
mated, returned  in  great  disappointment,  but  was 
relieved  and  rejoiced  at  hearing  that  Gelasius's  suc- 
cessor was  to  be  Calixtus  II.,  a  friend  of  his  own 
and    uncle    to    King  Alonzo   VII.      He    immediately 


328         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

despatched  Canon  Gerard  to  Rome  "with  the  money 
necessary  for  the  affair,  namely,  a  gold  chest  of 
9  marks,  lOO  Spanish  coins  called  morabitini,  21 1 
soHdi  of  Poictiers,  6o  solidi  of  Milan,  20  solidi  of 
Toulouse,  el  ccetcraJ'  But,  to  avoid  the  mischances 
that  had  happened  before,  this  treasure  was  sent  by 
another  hand,  while  Gerard  disguised  himself  as  a 
poor  man  and  travelled  with  two  pilgrims  ;  *'  and  when 
I  remember  the  labour  and  anxiety  that  I  under- 
went," says  the  canon,  "  as  the  Lord  liveth,  and  as 
my  soul  liveth,  I  tremble  all  over."  Gerard  found 
Calixtus  in  France,  but  the  money  did  not  arrive, 
and  the  Pope  deferred  the  question  for  six  months, 
when  he  would  be  at  Toulouse.  By  that  time  the 
money  had  arrived  ;  but  meanwhile  letters  of  com- 
plaint against  the  bishop  had  been  received  from  the 
Archbishop  of  Toledo  and  from  Alonzo  VII.,  whereupon 
Calixtus  again  deferred  the  subject.  Gerard  in  conse- 
quence gave  him  only  twenty  ounces  of  gold,  and  de- 
posited the  rest  with  the  Abbot  of  Cluny  for  future  use. 
Calixtus  wrote  to  Gelmirez,  desiring  him  to  come  to  a 
Council  at  Rheims,  and  advised  him  to  help  his  mother, 
the  Roman  Church,  out  of  the  means  which  the  Lord 
had  given  him,  since  he  (Calixtus)  wished  to  honour 
the  Church  of  S.  James  as  much  as  the  Lord  allowed 
him.  Gelmirez  did  not  himself  venture  on  the  jour- 
ney to  Rheims,  but  his  late  Archdeacon  Hugo,  now 
Bishop  of  Portugal,  undertook  to  go  for  him,  sug- 
gesting, however,  that  it  would  be  better  to  ask  that 
the  archbishopric  of  Merida  should  be  transferred  to 
Compostela  than  that  of  Braga,  because  Merida  had 
been   destroyed    by  the  Saracens.       Bishop   Hugo  set 


NEW  CHURCH  OF  LEON  AND  CASTILE.       329 

off  dressed  in  beggar's  rags.  Sometimes  he  pre- 
tended to  be  blind,  sometimes  lame,  sometimes  para- 
lysed ;  and  so  he  got  safe  to  France,  recognised  only 
by  one  person,  to  whom  he  gave  a  mark  of  silver  to 
keep  silence.  After  two  days'  rest  he  proceeded  to 
Cluny.  The  Pope  was  there  with  a  great  part  of  his 
court,  but  at  first  the  bishop  could  do  nothing,  "  for 
the  Roman  cardinals  and  the  others  had  been  look- 
ing with  the  greatest  longing  for  the  arrival  of  the 
Bishop  of  Compostela,  being  in  hopes  of  receiving 
from  him  great  and  innumerable  gifts;  but  when  the 
Bishop  of  Portugal  came,  and  brought  word  that  the 
Bishop  of  S.  James  could  not  come,  they  took  it  hard 
to  be  balked  of  their  hopes.  ''  The  Bishop  of  Com- 
postela," they  grumbled,  ''  was  as  rich  as  possible, 
and  cared  nothing  for  the  Roman  Curia."  ^  But  the 
Abbot  of  Cluny  was  a  friend  of  Gelmirez,  and  the 
Pope,  though  personally  offended,  could  not  refuse 
any  petition  presented  by  him.  So  Hugo  went  to 
the  abbot  and  said,  *^  Now,  now,  most  reverend 
father,  is  the  time  for  elevating  the  Church  of  S. 
James,  while  Pope  Calixtus  is  in  your  hands.  Deafen 
his  ears  with  your  prayers  !  Let  us  be  quick  while 
we  have  the  time.  It  is  the  blessed  James  who  has 
got  it  for  us."  ^  The  abbot  presented  a  petition  in 
the  name  of  S.  James.  Then,  ''turning  with  the 
Bishop  of  Portugal  to  the  cardinals,  he  gave  promises 
to  some,  and  soft  words  to  others,"  till  they  all  fell 
on  their  knees  and  joined  in  the  petition.  Then  the 
Pope  opened  his  mouth  and  said,  '*  The  Church  of 
Compostela  shall  be  honoured  with  the  metropolitan 
^  Bisf.  Comp.,  ii.  15.  2  j^j^j^ 


330         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

dignity  of  Merida,  as  God  wills."  The  Bishop  of 
Portugal  sent  off  two  canons  with  the  good  news, 
and  desired  that  more  money  might  be  immediately 
sent  him  for  the  Pope  and  the  cardinals.  He  had 
with  him  the  golden  chest,  the  lOO  morabitini,  and 
the  50  solid!  of  Poictiers  which  had  been  deposited 
with  the  abbot,  and  100  morabitini  which  he  had 
brought  with  him  ;  but  260  marks  of  silver  were  still 
wanting  "  to  make  up  the  benediction."  Bishop  Gel- 
mirez  straightway  took  from  the  treasury  of  S.  James 
a  round  silver  table  containing  40  rnarks  of  silver,  a 
gold  cross,  a  gold  chasuble  which  King  Ordoiio  had 
given,  and  a  gold  crown,  and  had  them  broken  up,  to 
make  up  the  full  sum  required.  Still  there  was  not 
enough,  so  the  bishop  gave  40  marks  of  silver  out  of 
his  own  pocket.  But  how  to  send  so  much  safely  ? 
He  pretended  to  send  it  by  a  ship,  but  "  his  clever 
and  sharp-seeing  genius  "  suggested  to  him  a  better 
plan,  which  was  this.  He  desired  the  confessors  to 
send  to  him  any  persons  on  whom  they  had  imposed 
penances,  and  he  arranged  with  these  persons  that 
one  should  carry  ten  ounces  of  gold,  another  eight 
ounces,  another  five,  and  so  on,  and  that  they  should 
be  excused  as  many  years'  penance  as  the  number  of 
the  ounces  that  they  safely  transported.  The  "  peni- 
tents" carried  the  money  to  the  borders  of  France, 
and  Cluniac  monks  met  them  there  and  carried  it  to 
the  monastery.  "  Papce !  suhtilissimi  atque  perspi- 
cacissimi  ingenii  dispositio ! "  cries  Canon  Gerard. 
There  was  still  a  difficulty.  The  gold  chest  had 
been  given  to  Pope  Calixtus  by  Bishop  Hugo  and  the 
Abbot  of  Ckui}'  as  pure   gold,  and   had  been  received 


NEW  CHURCH  OF  LEON  AND  CASTILE.      331 

by  him  as  such ;  but,  on  examination,  the  inside  was 
found  to  be  silver-gilt,  and  the  Pope  demanded 
twenty  more  ounces  of  gold  to  make  up  for  it,  whilst 
Stephen,  the  Pope's  chamberlain,  vowed  that  no  less 
than  two  hundred  ounces  of  gold  which  he  had  ac- 
cepted was  bad  money.  A  compromise  was  made ; 
the  twenty  ounces  were  paid  to  the  Pope  in  full,  but 
Stephen  had  to  content  himself  with  thirty.  For 
this  additional  payment,  and  his  own  expenses, 
Gelmirez  had  to  give  Bishop  Hugo  another  hun- 
dred ounces  of  gold,  besides  a  number  of  presents. 
But  he  was  an  archbishop,  and  he  did  not  com- 
plain. 

The  Roman  Curia,  however,  was  too  quick-witted 
thus  to  let  the  archbishop  slip  out  of  its  hands.  The 
grant  of  the  archbishopric  was  made  only  until  such 
time  as  the  city  of  Merida  should  be  delivered  from 
the  Saracens  and  restored  to  Christian  rule.  In 
about  four  years'  time  the  archbishop  saw  that  this 
was  inevitably  about  to  happen,  and  fearing  that 
he  should  be  in  worse  plight  than  ever  if  he  were 
degraded  to  his  previous  condition,  he  sent  one  of 
his  cardinals  and  his  archdeacon  to  Rome  with  four 
hundred  pieces  of  gold  to  get  the  concession  made 
perpetual.  "  His  legates,  therefore,  after  immense 
toil  and  anxiety,  at  last  reached  Rome ;  and  first 
they  presented  the  greater  part  of  the  four  hundred 
pieces  of  gold  to  the  Lord  Pope  as  they  kissed  his 
feet  and  humbly  saluted  him  on  the  part  of  the 
Lord  Archbishop  Diego,  and  then  they  distributed 
the  lesser  part  among  the  cardinals  and  the  chief 
persons  in  the  Roman  Curia,  according  as  they  knew 


332         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

would  be  most  effective."  ^  At  the  same  time  they 
assured  all  whom  they  saw  of  the  devotion  and 
meekness  with  which  the  archbishop  desired  to  serve 
the  Papac}^  The  legates  were  successful,  and  the 
concession  was  made.  But  the  Pope  sent  the  Bull 
without  its  seal,  and  therefore  legally  of  no  value,  on 
the  plea  that  the  archbishop  might  like  to  peruse  it 
before  it  was  sealed.  The  archbishop  understood  what 
was  meant ;  he  found  nothing  to  alter,  but  he  sent 
back  his  legates  to  get  it  sealed,  and  with  them  300 
more  ounces  of  gold — 200  ounces  from  the  treasury  of 
S.  James  and  100  ounces  from  the  archbishop's  privy 
purse.  These  300  ounces  were  conveyed  by  pilgrims, 
all  of  whom  arrived  safely  with  the  exception  of  one, 
who  was  carrying  27  ounces.  What  was  to  be  done 
about  this  ?  Two  canons  of  Santiago,  who  had  been 
begging  alms  in  Sicily,  were  then  passing  through 
Italy.  One  of  these  lent  the  27  ounces,  and  so 
the  300  ounces  were  made  up,  and  ''  thc}^  distributed 
them  to  the  Lord  Pope  and  to  the  others  to  whom 
distribution  was  to  be  made."  ^  The  Bull  was  de- 
spatched, and  the  archbishop  was  made  legate  of 
the  Holy  See  for  the  two  provinces  of  Merida  and 
Braga.  Canon  Gerard  pauses  to  express  his  admi- 
ration of  the  zeal,  liberality,  cleverness,  and  obse- 
quiousness by  which  Gelmirez  had  won  success. 

He  had,  indeed,  gained  two  of  the  objects  of  his 
life.  Would  he  be  able  to  proceed  further,  to  make 
himself  Primate  of  Spain  by  the  help  of  the  Holy 
See,  and  then  to  release  himself  from  dependence 
on  it  ?      Bernard,  Archbishop  of  Toledo,  had  already 

^  l/zsf.  Com  p.,  ii.  64.  -  Ibid.,  ii,  21. 


NEW  CHURCH  OF  LEON  AND  CASTILE.       333 

shown  his  jealousy  of  him.      While  he  was  still  only 
bishop,  the  primate  had   loftily  told   him   that,  out  of 
respect  to  his  old  friendship  and  to  the  apology  made 
by    his   clergy,   he   forgave    him   for  not   attending  a 
Synod  to  which  he  had   summoned  him   in  Palencia, 
but  that  it  must   not  happen  again  ;   and  the  bishop 
had    taken    the    reproof    meekly.       Now,    when    the 
bishop  had  become  archbishop  and  legate,  with  juris- 
diction  over    two    provinces,   the  primate    refused   to 
acknowledge   his  newly  acquired  rights.      Salamanca 
was   a  Suffragan   See  of  Merida.      When  it   became 
vacant     the    Archbishop    of    Toledo     consecrated     a 
bishop  for  it,  although  the  jurisdiction  of  Merida  had 
been    transferred    by  the   Pope  to   Compostela ;    and 
he  wrote  to  the  Bishops  of  Braga  and  Coimbra,  for- 
bidding  them  to   recognise    the  Archbishop  of  San- 
tiago's  authority    by  attending  any  Synod   to  which 
the  latter  should  summon  them.     He  also  addressed 
an  angry  letter  to  Gelmirez,  accusing  him  of  secretly 
and  furtively   using  all   his   power  to  diminish,  steal 
away,    and    appropriate    the    dignity    of    the    See    of 
Toledo  at  a  time  when  he  was  professing  friendship, 
and   ended   by   summoning   him   to  appear  at   Leon 
on  the  second  Sunday  after  Easter,  and   to  pay  him, 
as  primate,   the  obedience  which  the  sacred   canons 
order   shall    be   paid    by  metropolitans    to   primates, 
adding   that   if   he    failed    he  would    pass    canonical 
sentence  on  him.      Archbishop  Gelmirez  laughed  in 
his  face.      Bernard  had  cut  away  his  own  standing- 
ground   by   accepting   the  dignity  that   he  held   as   a 
gift   from  Pope  Urban.      From   that   moment  he  was 
no  longer  the  representative   of  Julian  and  the  other 


334        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

great  Toledan  primates  and  metropolitans.  He  was 
a  Frenchman,  nominated  by  Alonzo  VI.,  who  had 
substituted  the  Roman  for  the  Toledan  law  through- 
out his  dominions,  and  he  was  authorised  to  act 
by  a  foreign  power.  The  line  of  Toledan  prelates 
who  were  primates  by  the  will  of  the  Church  and 
State  ended  with  his  predecessor.  He  was  him- 
self the  first  prelate  of  the  new  Church,  which 
Alonzo  and  Urban,  taking  advantage  of  the  weak- 
ness of  the  Mozarabs,  were  substituting  for  the  old 
Spanish  Church.  He  who  gave  him  his  power  could 
take  it  away,  or  could  give  a  share,  or  the  whole  of 
it,  to  another.  Gelmirez,  therefore,  wrote  back  in  light 
"and  contemptuous  style  to  his  "  beloved  brother : " 
— "  You  must  know  that,  with  the  sole  exception  of 
the  Pope's  jurisdiction,  I  am  absolutely  uncontrolled, 
and  that  I  am  not  going  to  pay  any  obedience  to 
you  as  primate,  or  as  legate,  or  as  archbishop.  After 
hearing  the  extravagances  and  false  claims  of  your 
letter,  we  refuse  to  hold  any  interview  with  you, 
or  to  continue  our  friendship  with  you,  until  you 
have  given  us  satisfaction  for  consecrating  the  Bishop 
of  Salamanca,  and  for  the  other  patent  wrongs  you 
have  done  us.  And  we  desire  you  no  longer  to 
presume  to  disturb  or  usurp  our  archiepiscopal 
dignity."  ^  At  the  same  time  he  sent  to  Rome  to 
get  Calixtus's  support.  Bernard  was  left  sore  and 
defeated.  He  deserved  his  defeat,  but,  unhappily, 
the  Church  of  Spain  was  defeated  with  him.  From 
that  time  forward  the  highest  ecclesiastical  authority 
in  the  Peninsula  was  the  legate  of  the  Primate  of 
1  IJtsL  Com/.,  ii.  66. 


NEW  CHURCH  OF  LEON  AND  CASTILE.       335 

Italy.  The  once  proud  Primate  of  Spain  could  now 
only  plead  his  cause  in  the  Court  of  Rome.  He 
and  the  Bishop  of  Coimbra  bowed  their  pride  to  go 
there  for  that  purpose,  but  the  Archbishop  of  San- 
tiago at  once  sent  off  two  of  his  canons  "with  a 
benediction,  with  which  they  quieted  {sedaveruni)  the 
Lord  Pope  and  the  whole  Curia."  ^ 

But  the  relations  of  the  archbishop  with  the  Court 
of  Rome  were  no  longer  as  good  as  they  had  been. 
Calixtus  was  dead,  and  Honorius  was  afraid  that 
Gelmirez  might  play  his  last  card  and  declare  his 
independence.  He  would  not,  therefore,  put  him 
above  the  Archbishop  of  Toledo,  though  he  suffered 
him  to  be  on  a  par  with  him,  and  he  wrote  to  him 
severely,  saying  that  sinister  accounts  of  him  had 
been  brought  to  his  ears,  but  that,  as  he  professed 
himself  a  most  devoted  son  of  the  Roman  Church, 
he  wished  to  deal  charitably  with  him,  and  not 
easily  to  believe  the  charges  made  against  him.  "  Be 
humble,  therefore,  and  submissive,  so  as  to  retain  the 
favour  of  the  blessed  Peter  and  our  own."  Gelmirez 
had  reached  the  summit  of  his  greatness.  The  Holy 
See  was  too  shrewd  and  sagacious  to  help  him 
further  upwards.  The  king  distrusted  him,  and 
secretly  prayed  Cardinal  Guido  to  depose  him  from 
his   ill-got   honours;   and  when  Rome,   to   which   the 

1  Hist.  Comp.,  ii.  83.  One  of  the  Roman  cardinals,  Deusdedit,  was  in 
the  pay  of  the  Archbishop  of  Santiago,  and  had  previously  "  quieted 
the  Curia  when  it  was  angry"  with  seven  ounces  of  gold  (Ibid.,  ii.  44). 
King  Alonzo's  major-domo  was  also  in  his  pay,  "  He  corrupted  the 
nearest  attendants  of  the  king,"  says  Canon  Gerard  naively,  "with 
money,  and  offered  ten  marks  to  his  major-domo,  and  ten  more  to 
another  of  his  counsellors  who  was  his  chief  business-man  "  (Ibid., 
ii.  81). 


336        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

cardinal  referred  the  question,  temporised,  would  have 
himself  deprived  him,  had  he  not  been  "  quieted  by 
an  immense  sum  of  money."  Once  more  the  people 
of  Compostela  rose  against  him  with  the  purpose  of 
taking  his  life. 

He   was  now   an   old   man,  having   been  a  bishop 
thirty-six   years.      He   was    lying    down,    taking   his 
siesta  after  dinner,    when   the  mob   rose,  headed   by 
one  William    Siginides,    and    rushed    raging    to    the 
palace.      The  archbishop  ordered   the  great  gates  to 
be  closed;    and   against   them   the  mob  threw  them- 
selves, beating  on  them  with  axes  and  clubs  and  any 
weapons  that  they  had.      The  gates  were  too  strong, 
but    there  was  a  door  or  window  leading  from  the 
upper  part  of  the  palace  into  a  gallery  of  the  Church 
of  S.  James.      The  leaders  of  the  assault  made  their 
way   thither    and    burst   through    it  into    the    palace. 
The  archbishop,  hearing  the  tumult,  threw  a  canon's 
cloak   over  him,  and   supported  by  two  canons,  fled 
for  refuge  to  the  church,  the  mob  hurling  stones  at 
him   as  he  ran  through  the  street   and   up  the  nave 
of  the  church.     One  of  the  stones  struck  him  on  the 
shoulder,  and  he  fell   into   the  arms  of  his  two  com- 
panions, who  lifted   him  up  and  bore  him  on  to  the 
altar  of  S.  James,  closing  and  locking   the   tall  iron 
gates  which  shut   it  off  from   the  rest  of  the  church, 
and  laying   him   under  the   cimborium  or  canopy  of 
the   altar.      The  people,  having  ransacked  the  palace, 
poured    in    crowds    into    the  church    and    surged    up 
to  the  railings,  which   those  within  had  in  the  mean- 
time  blocked   with   planks.      Not    being   able   to   get 
through,    they    swarmed    up    the    wooden    stalls    of 


NEW  CHURCH  OF  LEON  AND  CASTILE. 


33: 


the  church,  and  hurled  stones  from  thence  into  the 
enclosure.  The  archbishop  advanced  to  the  barrier 
and  tried  to  soften  his  enemies'  rage,  but  while  he 
was  speaking  an  attempt  was  made  to  stab  him 
through  the  rails,  so  he  ran  back  to  hide  himself 
under  the  altar.  There  he  was  exposed  to  the  volleys 
of  stones  thrown  from  the  top  of  the  stalls,  one  of 
which  wounded  his  ear.  As  quickly  as  he  could 
he  concealed  himself  in  the  altar-hangings,  while 
stones,  "  thicker  than  rain-drops  in  a  storm,"  were 
poured  upon  him,  breaking  part  of  the  cimborimn 
and  of  the  altar  and  its  furniture.  His  companions 
covered  their  heads,  leaving  the  rest  of  their  bodies 
exposed  to  the  missiles,  and  the  archbishop,  try  as  he 
would,  could  not  altogether  keep  himself  hidden.  "  It 
was  only  God's  mercy  and  the  intercession  of  the 
glorious  Apostle  whose  church  he  had  loved  all  his 
life,  that  delivered  him  from  the  hands  of  his  enemies 
by  means  of  some  of  the  canons."  These  canons 
collected  a  number  of  the  graver  citizens,  together 
with  their  wives  and  widows,  who  all  threw  them- 
selves between  the  assailants  and  their  prey  with 
weeping  and  lamentations  ;  the  stone-throwers  thought 
they  had  done  enough  and  withdrew,  and  the  new- 
comers conveyed  the  bishop  to  his  palace.  A  few 
days  after  this  occurrence  the  Papal  legate  was 
holding  a  Council  at  Burgos,  attended  by  the  king, 
at  which  both  the  archbishop  and  William  pre- 
sented themselves.  The  king  and  the  cardinal  legate 
were  prepared  to  depose  the  archbishop,  but  in  the 
nick  of  time  letters  arrived  in  his  favour  from  the 
Abbot  of  Cluny  and  from  Pope  Innocent  II.,  and  the 


338        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

archbishop  was  able  to  promise  the  king  400  marks 
of  silver,  and  to  give  the  cardinal  300  gold-pieces. 
The  result  of  the  Council  was  that  William  was 
excommunicated  and  his  followers  punished,  and  the 
archbishop  returned  to  Compostela.  7'here  soon 
afterwards  he  died,  having  lived  to  receive  from  Pope 
Innocent  an  invitation  as  ''  the  head  of  Spain " 
{caput  Hispanice)  to  the  second  Lateran  Council,  where 
the  question  of  the  Spanish  Primacy  was  to  be 
considered. 

Masdeu  concludes  a  summary  of  his  career  and- 
character  as  follows  : — '*  He  made  himself  famous 
and  memorable  by  his  simoniacal  buying  and  selling, 
by  selling  for  money  dispensations,  absolutions,  and 
indulgences,  and  by  buying  for  gold  almost  all  the 
decrees,  grants,  privileges,  and  honours  which  he  ob- 
tained, and,  above  all,  the  two  lofty  dignities,  which 
he  in  no  way  deserved,  of  archbishop  and  legate. 
That  is  the  true  historical  portrait  of  Don  Diego  Gel- 
mirez,  so  venerated  till  now  in  his  holy  church  of 
Compostela,  of  so  good  name  in  all  my  nation,  and 
so  celebrated  by  all  our  writers."  ^  The  same  writer 
says  : — ''  The  French-Italian  privilege  by  which  for 
the  future  the  Bishops  of  Compostela  depend  im- 
mediately on  Rome  alone,  as  suffragans  of  the  Pope, 
so  that  none  can  consecrate  them  except  the  Roman 
Pontiff,  is  directly  opposed  to  our  genuine  canons,  to 
the  good  order  of  the  hierarchy,  to  the  regular  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  bishops,  and  to  the  whole  of  the  ancient 
system  of  uncorrupted  ecclesiastical  discipline."  ^ 

With  Gelmirez  and  his  many  ounces  of  gold,  the 

^  Hist,  Crit.,  xx.  244.  *  Ibid.,  102. 


NEW  CHURCH  OF  LEON  AND  CASTILE.       339 

hope  of  Compostela  becoming  the  Primatial  See  of 
Spain  perished.  No  conclusion  was  arrived  at  in 
the  Lateran  Council,  and  in  the  year  1155  the  Pope's 
legate  gave  judgment  in  favour  of  the  claims  of  the 
See  of  Toledo,  and  against  those  advanced  by  San- 
tiago and  Braga.  After  Bernard's  primacy  Rome 
no  longer  feared  a  rival  in  Toledo,  but  it  was  con- 
venient to  keep  the  question  open.  In  12 15  it  was 
again  discussed  at  the  Fourth  Lateran  Council,  when 
Rodrigo,  Archbishop  of  Toledo,  stoutly  refused  to 
accept  the  legend  of  S.  James  having  preached  at 
Compostela,  and  though  he  did  not  dare  deny  the 
legend  of  the  translation  of  his  body,  he  claimed  that 
S.  Mary's  appearance  to  Ildefonso  at  Toledo  gave  his 
See  a  greater  right  to  the  primacy  than  S.  James' 
burial  gave  to  Compostela. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

THE  MOZ ARABIC  LITURGY. 

The  first  forms  of  the  liturgies  of  the  Christian 
Church  arose  out  of  the  extemporaneous  prayers 
used  by  the  Church  officers  in  setting  apart  and 
offering  for  consumption  the  sacred  elements  which 
were  given  and  taken  as  symbols  of  the  body  and 
blood  of  Christ  at  the  Feast  of  Love.  The  earliest 
Eucharistic  form  extant  is  one  of  extreme  simplicity, 
preserved  to  us  in  the  ''  Teaching  of  the  Twelve 
Apostles."  It  consists  of  a  thanksgiving  for  mercies 
wrought  through  Jesus  Christ,  and  a  prayer  for  the 
Church,  before  reception,  and  after  reception  of  a 
second  thanksgiving  for  the  bodily  and  spiritual 
nutriment  supplied  by  God  to  man,  and  of  a  second 
prayer  for  the  Church.  These  forms  are  provided 
for  the  less  learned,  but  a  special  instruction  is  given 
that  "  the  prophets  "  are  to  be  allowed  to  use  what 
words  they  would.^  At  a  later  period,  when  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  Communion  was  separated  from 
the  Love  Feast,  we  find  from  Justin  Martyr  that  the 
officiating  minister  still  used  carefully  prepared  ex- 
temporaneous   prayers  and  thanksgivings.^     But   ex- 

1  Chap.  X. 

^  '0   TrpoetTTtos  euxas  ofxoicjs  Kal  evx^pi-crTias,  6<xr}    8vuafj.LS  ai'Tif,  dva- 
TT^fivei. — /f/>(V.  i. 

340 


THE  MOZARABIC  LITURGY,  341 

tempore  prayers  and  thanksgivings  for  a  particular 
object,  again  and  again  offered,  have  a  necessary 
tendency  to  take  a  stereotyped  shape.  Thus  forms 
grew  up  in  one  and  another  congregation,  and  were 
borrowed  by  other  congregations.  Bishops  naturally 
sought  to  make  the  forms  identical  in  the  various 
congregations  over  which  they  ruled,  whence  arose  a 
general  use  for  the  diocese.  When  dioceses  were 
combined  together  into  provinces  the  use  of  the 
metropolitan  church  superseded  those  of  the  various 
dioceses,  and  when  provinces  were  united  into  a 
national  or  "  dioecesan  "  church,  the  primate  or  exarch 
encouraged  his  metropolitans  to  adopt  the  use  of  the 
primatial  church  in  place  of  their  own.  Had  this 
process  bCen  carried  out  with  perfect  regularity  there 
would  have  been  in  the  latter  years  of  Constantine 
fourteen  liturgies,  as  there  were  fourteen  "  dioecesan  " 
churches  under  fourteen  primates.  But  the  process 
was  not  altogether  regular.  There  was  no  law  which 
required  the  bishop  to  give  up  his  use  for  that  of  the 
metropolitan,  nor  compelling  the  metropolitan  to  adopt 
the  use  of  the  primate's  cathedral.  There  was  often 
some  good  reason  why  the  old  forms  of  some  local 
church  should  be  retained  and  approved  by  the  pri- 
mate, or  even  by  more  than  one  primate,  in  prefer- 
ence to  his  own.  After  a  time  the  various  liturgies 
gathered  themselves  into  five  groups — (i)  those  of 
the  Patriarchate  of  Antioch  (which  included  the  head- 
quarters both  of  the  Jewish  and  Gentile  Christian 
Church),  on  which  the  name  of  S.  James  of  Jerusalem 
was  imposed ;  (2)  those  of  the  Patriarchate  of  Alex- 
andria, to  which   the  name  of  S.  Mark  was  assigned; 


342         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

(3)  the  Nestorian  Liturgies  of  the  far  East ;  (4)  the 
French-Spanish  Liturgies,  which  are  regarded  as  con- 
nected with  S.  John,  owing  to  their  having  been 
brought  originally  in  germ  from  Ephesus  to  Lyons 
by  Irenaeus  ;  (5)  the  Roman  Liturgy,  including  the 
Ambrosian  and  African,  called  by  the  name  of  S. 
Peter,  from  a  belief  once  entertained  that  S.  Peter 
was  Bishop  of  Rome. 

The  Gallican  and  Spanish  Liturgies,  standing  in 
the  relation  of  sisters  to  each  other,  and  differing  in 
some  respects  from  the  Roman,  served  as  a  perma- 
nent memorial  of  the  independence  of  the  GaHican  and 
Spanish  Churches  in  regard  to  any  authority  claimed 
over  them  by  the  See  of  Rome,  and  for  this  reason 
they  were  objects  of  detestation  to  the  Roman 
prelates.  At  the  beginning  of  the  ninth  century, 
Charlemagne,  who  was  intimately  associated  with  the 
See  of  Rome,  ordained  by  an  imperial  edict,  issued  at 
the  instance  of  the  Roman  bishop,  that  the  Roman 
Liturgy  should  be  substituted  in  his  dominions  for 
the  Gallican,  and  thus  the  ancient  liturgy  of  France 
was  abolished  for  ever.  The  sister  liturgy  of  Spain 
prevailed  in  that  country  in  the  time  of  Hosius  and  all 
through  the  period  of  the  Gothic  rule,  during  which 
time  it  was  revised  several  times,  and  great  additions 
were  made  to  it  by  Leander  and  Isidore  of  Seville,  and 
by  Eugcnius  and  Julian  of  Toledo,  the  last  of  whom 
so  altered  it  that  it  bore  the  impress  both  of  his  in- 
dividuality and  of  the  character  and  tenets  of  the 
Spanish  Church  at  the  end  of  the  seventh  century. 
Down  to  this  period  it  had  borne  the  name  of  the 
Spanish  or  Gothic  Liturgy.     With  the  eighth  century 


THE  MOZARABIC  LITURGY.  343 

came  the  overthrow  of  the  Gothic  kingdom  and  the 
introduction  of  the  Moorish  rule  in  Spain.  The 
Christians  who  submitted  to  the  Moors  and  Hved  in 
the  districts  subjected  to  the  conquerors  were  called 
Mozarabs,  and  as  they  continued  to  use  their  old 
liturgy,  it  came  to  be  called  from  thence  the  Mozarabic 
Liturgy.-^  But  this  liturgy  was  not  confined  to  the 
use  of  the  Mozarabs  ;  as  the  free  Christians  made 
good  their  standing  in  Leon,  Castile,  Aragon,  and 
elsewhere,  they  naturally  made  use  of  the  old  National 
Liturgy,  and  continued  to  employ  it  until  the  eleventh 
century,  when  it  was  superseded  by  the  Roman  in 
Aragon  in  the  year  1071,  and  in  Castile  partially  in 
1078,  and  fully  in  1085. 

The  first  Roman  objection  to  the  Spanish  Liturgy 
was  made  by  Vigilius,  who  in  the  year  538,  shortly 
before  he  became  Pope,  wrote  to  Profuturus,  Bishop 
of  Braga,  describing  the  ceremonies  used  at  Rome ; 
and  the  Council  of  Braga,  held  in  561,  appears  to 
have  adopted  the  Roman  customs  for  the  province  of 
Galicia,  which  was  then  under  the  dominion  of  the 
Suevi.  The  Suevi  having  been  reduced  to  subjection 
by  the  Gothic  King  Leovigild,  the  province  of  Galicia 
was  ordered  by  the  Council  of  Toledo  held  in  633 
to  conform  to  the  National  Liturgy,  which  was  done 
without  a  murmur,  and  the  whole  of  Spain,  having 
become  one  kingdom  and  holding  one  faith,  united  in 
one  ecclesiastical  discipline.^     It  was  not  till  the  tenth 

^  The  word  Mozarab,  or  Mostarab,  is  a  participle  meaning  one  that 
has  adopted  the  Arab  way  of  living,  and  it  was  applied  to  those  Chris- 
tians that  preferred  the  Arab  rule  to  the  free  life  of  the  Asturias. 

2  **  One  order  of  prayers  and  psalms  is  to  be  used  by  us  through- 
out Spain  and  Galicia,  one  manner  of  solemnising  Mass,  one  form  of 


344         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

century  that  the  resolute  ^lS3ault  commenced  which 
was  to  be  successful  at  the  end  of  about  150  years. 
''  The  tenth  century,"  says  Masdeu,  "  which  was  the 
age  of  the  greatest  ignorance  and  darkness  of  all  the 
ages  of  the  Church — thai  is  the  fatal  epoch  in  which 
strangers  began  to  assail  our  ancient  liturgy,  which 
they  continued  to  assail  for  more  that  a  century  and 
a  half,  from  920  to  1080,  when  at  last  they  succeeded 
in  their  designs."^  Early  in  the  tenth  century  Pope 
John  X.  sent  a  presbyter  named  Zanelo  to  Compos- 
tela  to  make  a  report  on  the  Missals,  Breviaries,  and 
other  ecclesiastical  books  of  Spain.  Zanelo  submitted 
his  report  to  a  Council  that  was  sitting  at  Rome, 
which  gave  its  approval  to  them.  Forty  years  later 
Alexander  II.  sent  Cardinal  Hugo  Candidus  with  in- 
structions to  prohibit  the  Mozarabic  office,  but  he 
was  met  with  proofs  of  the  approbation  given  to  it 
by  John  X.,  and  returned  to  Rome  without  effecting 
anything.  Alexander  sent  another  cardinal  with  the 
same  object  as  before,  on  which  three  Spanish  bishops 
proceeded  to  Rome  with  their  ecclesiastical  books  and 
submitted  them  to  the  examination  of  the  Pope  and  of  a 
Council  that  was  sitting  at  Mantua.  The  Pope  and  the 
Council  determined  that  there  was  ''nothing  in  the 
books  to  condemn  or  to  censure  or  to  alter."  Never- 
theless, Alexander,  urged  on  by  the  monks  of  Cluny, 
continued  negotiations  with  the  King  of  Aragon  with 
the  view  of  restoring  Spain  to  "  unity  in  the  Catholic 
faith,    in   ecclesiastical    discipline,   and    in    the  sacred 

Matins  and  Vespers  ;  and  we  are  no  longer  to  have  different  customs 
in  our  churches,  seeing  that  we  are  embraced  in  one  faith  and  in  one 
kingdom"  {Cone.  Tolet.,  iv.  2). 
^  Apologia  CatoHca,  p.  339. 


THE  MOZARABIC  LITURGY.  345 

liturgy."  Gregory  VII.  followed  in  Alexander's  steps 
with  greater  passion  and  greater  vigour,  as  might 
be  expected  from  his  character.  In  March  1074  he 
wrote  to  Sancho,  King  of  Aragon,  declaring  him  a 
good  son  of  the  Church  for  abolishing  the  old  Spanish 
office.  In  the  same  month  he  wrote  to  Alonzo  of 
Castile  and  Sancho  of  Navarre  "exhorting  and  ad- 
monishing them  to  acknowledge  the  Roman  Church 
for  their  mother,  and  to  receive,  like  other  nations  of 
the  North  and  West,  not  the  office  of  the  Church 
of  Toledo,  or  any  other  particular  office,  but  that  of 
Rome,  which  S.  Peter  and  S.  Paul  had  founded  upon 
the  Rock  and  consecrated  with  their  blood."  In  the 
same  year  he  wrote  a  third  letter  on  the  subject  to 
Alonzo  VI.,  from  which  it  appears  that  he  had  made 
some  Spanish  bishops  who  had  visited  Rome  pro- 
mise to  introduce  the  Roman  Liturgy  into  their 
dioceses.  Two  years  later  he  wrote  to  the  Bishop 
of  Burgos  desiring  him  to  use  every  means  in  his 
power  to  introduce  it  into  Castile,  Leon,  and  Galicia. 
In  1078  he  wrote  to  King  Alonzo  "  giving  thanks  to 
God  for  his  fidelity  and  obedience  to  the  Holy  Roman 
See  "  on  the  occasion  of  his  allowing  the  use  of  the 
Roman  Liturgy  in  Burgos.  All  seemed  going  well 
for  the  Papal  design,  when  suddenly  King  Alonzo 
changed  his  mind  and  took  the  Spanish  office  under 
his  protection.  It  was  whispered  —  falsely,  as  it 
turned  out — that  his  queen  and  a  Cluniac  monk 
named  Robert  were  the  cause  of  this  change.  Gre- 
gory was  furious.  "Your  monk  Robert,"  he  wrote 
to  the  Abbot  of  Cluny,  "  has  had  the  audacity  to 
rebel  against  S.  Peter,  and  has  done  infinite  mischief 


346        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

at  the  instigation  of  the  devil  by  his  words  and  say- 
ings, which  have  spread  all  through  the  Spanish 
Church.  Threaten  the  miserable  monk  immediately 
with  excommunication  and  degradation.  Notify  to 
all  the  other  monks  in  Spain  that  no  function  is 
valid  in  that  kingdom  except  that  which  has  the 
authority  and  approbation  of  my  nuncios."  To  Alonzo 
himself  he  wrote  : — ^'  You  that  used  to  be  the  model 
of  kings  and  the  glory  of  the  Roman  Church,  how 
have  you  allowed  yourself  to  be  perverted  by  a  limb  of 
the  devil,  the  false  monk  Robert,  and  by  a  nefarious 
woman  Who  has  'always  protected  him  ?  My  son, 
drive  away  from  your  side  that  perverse  monk  and 
that  incestuous  female,  for  that  is  no  good  marriage 
which  you  have  made  with  a  relative  of  your  first 
wife.  Do  not  delay  to  rejoice  the  Church  of  God  by 
your  penitence,  else  you  will  oblige  me,  with  the 
greatest  grief,  to  unsheath  over  your  head  the  sword 
of  S.  Peter."  The  meaning  of  unsheathing  the  sword 
of  S.  Peter  had  been  already  explained  as  follows  : — 
"  If  he  does  not  repent  of  his  sin  I  will  excommuni- 
cate him  and  will  raise  his  subjects  against  him  ;  and 
if  they  are  disobedient  to  me  and  unfaithful  to  S. 
Peter,  I  will  go  myself  to  stir  up  his  kingdom  and  to 
prosecute  him  with  fury  as  the  enemy  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion."  Alonzo  VI.  was  no  match  in  courage 
for  Gregory  VII.  Very  soon  the  Pope  was  able  to 
write  to  him  that  "  he  had  heard  with  great  joy  of 
soul  that  he  had  given  orders  to  employ  the  old  rite 
of  the  Holy  Roman  See,  mother  of  all  the  rest,  in  the 
churches  of  his  kingdom,  and  that  he  had  banished 
the  Spanish  office." 


THE  MOZARABIC  LITURGY.  347 

There  was  no  power  either  in  Aragon  or  in  Castile 
to  resist  the  resolute  will  .of  Gregory,  nor  was  there 
any  learning  left  in  Spain  to  contradict  the  audacious 
assertion  which  Gregory  did  not  shrink  from  making 
that  "  from  the  earliest  times  Spain  had  been  the 
special  property  of  S.  Peter."  Writing  to  the  kings, 
counts,  and  lords  of  Spain,  he  calmly  stated  that, 
'^  according  to  ancient  constitutions,  the  property  and 
ownership  of  the  kingdoms  of  Spain  belonged  to  S. 
Peter  and  to  the  Holy  Roman  Church,  but  that  the 
memory  of  these  pontifical  rights  had  been  lost, 
partly  through  the  carelessness  of  his  predecessors, 
and  partly  because  the  Moslems  had  refused  the 
ancient  homage  due  to  the  Apostle  S.  Peter,  which 
belonged  by  Divine  gift  to  the  Roman  Church."  ^  The 
natural  person  to  resist  and  to  expose  such  preposterous 
claims  was  the  Metropolitan  of  Toledo ;  but  Toledo 
was  still  in  the  hands  of  the  Moors,  and  was  soon  to 
fall  before  the  victorious  arms  of  that  very  Alonzo 
who  had  been  terrified  into  submission  by  Hilde- 
brand,  and  cared  little  for  the  traditions  of  the  old 
Gothic  and  Mozarabic  Church.  Aragon  and  Barce- 
lona yielded  in  the  year  1071,  Navarre  in  1076. 
Alonzo's  subjects  were  not  so  submissive.  Writing 
to    Hugo,   Abbot   of  Cluny,   the    king   acknowledged 

^  Florez  gravely  examines  Gregory's  statement,  and  shows  that  the 
Pope  had  no  authority  before  the  Gothic  invasion  nor  during  the 
Gothic  rule  or  the  Saracenic  domination,  and  that  there  never  was  such 
a  person  as  Count  Ebolo  de  Roceyo,  who,  according  to  Gregory,  re- 
conquered the  lands  for  S.  Peter.  Florez  is  convinced  that  Gregory 
was  deceived  by  Hugo  Candidus,  his  legate  : — "  Candidus  facie,  nigerri- 
mus  mente,  de  cujus  reprehensibili  vita  et  morum  perversitate  tacendum 
potius  duximus  quam  loquendum."  But  he  cannot  understand  how 
Baronius  could  propagate  such  a  story  {Esp.  Sagr.,  xxv.  130). 


348        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

that  his  people  were  perfectly  disconsolate  {admodum 
desolaium)  at  the  prospect  of  the  loss.  In  1077  the 
king  and  the  people  chose  each  a  champion,  who 
fought  in  single  combat  in  behalf  of  the  Toledan  and 
the  Roman  rites.  The  champion  of  Toledo  won  the 
duel,  but  his  success  gained  only  a  brief  delay  from 
the  king.  The  very  next  year  the  Pope  sent  a  legate 
named  Richard,  under  whom  the  work  of  substitution 
began  in  earnest.  In  1085,  ^^  a  Council  of  Burgos, 
the  Churches  of  Castile  and  Leon  were  ordered  to  con- 
form to  Rome.  This  left  the  Mozarabic  Church  alone 
faithful  to  the  tradition  of  Hosius,  Leander,  Isidore, 
and  Julian.  In  the  same  year,  that  of  1085,  Toledo 
fell  before  Alonzo.  The  representatives  of  the  old 
Spanish  Church  had  no  head  under  whom  they  might 
fight  their  battle.  Yet  so  strong  was  their  resistance 
to  parting  with  their  National  Liturgy  and  rites  that 
the  king  consented  to  another  appeal  being  made  to 
God.  Two  Missals  were  brought  out  into  the  square 
of  Toledo,  a  bonfire  was  lit,  and  it  was  agreed  that 
whichever  of  the  two  Missals  thrown  into  the  fire 
should  be  the  least  injured  by  it,  the  liturgy  that  it 
contained  should  be  accepted  as  the  national  liturgy. 
The  Roman  Missal  was  reduced  to  ashes.  The 
Toledan  is  said  to  have  remained  unconsumed  in  the 
fire,  and  to  have  come  out  from  the  trial  uninjured  ; 
but  the  king,  with  his  French  queen,  and  the  Pope 
were  too  strong  for  the  success  of  the  trial  by  single 
combat  or  by  fire.-^     All    that  the  advocates   of  the 

^  "In  Castile  there  was  a  notable  resistance  made,  which  proceeded 
as  far  as  a  public  duel,  in  which  the  Castilian  side  won  in  1077 ;  but, 
with  all  that,  the  will  of  the  king,  helped  by  the  bishops  and  Cardinal 


THE  MOZARABIC  LITURGY.  349 

National  Liturgy  could  obtain  was  that  it  should  be 
still  used  as  before  in  the  Churches  of  S.  Justa,  S. 
Luke,  S.  Eulalia,  S.  Mark,  S.  Torquatus,  and  S. 
Sebastian,  within  the  city  of  Toledo.  Elsewhere  the 
Roman  use  was  to  prevail.  By  degrees,  even  in  the 
churches  named,  the  Mozarabic  Liturgy  came  to  be 
used  only  on  certain  days,  and  at  last  it  was  almost 
dropped.  In  the  year  1436  the  Bishop  of  Segovia 
established  a  college  of  eight  clergy,  who  were  to 
keep  alive  the  Gothic  office,  but  the  foundation  only 
served  this  purpose  for  a  few  years.  At  the  begin- 
ning of  the  sixteenth  century  Cardinal  Ximenes  ap- 
pointed a  chapel  in  the  Cathedral  of  Toledo,  with 
thirteen  chaplains  attached,  to  prevent  the  ancient 
rite  from  altogether  perishing,  and  feeble  efforts 
were  made  in  the  same  direction  in  Salamanca  and 
Valladolid.  Cardinal  Ximenes  took  great  pains  in 
collecting  and  revising  the  old  books  of  prayer,  which 
he  placed  in  the  hands  of  Dr.  Ortiz,  with  instructions 
to  arrange  them  properly.  Ortiz  was  a  man  of 
sufficient  capacity,  but  he  had  already  composed 
services  for  the  Festivals  of  Eugenius,  Ildefonso,  and 
Leocadia,  and  to  him  we  probably  owe  an  entire 
reconstruction   of  the  old   liturgy  in   conformity  with 

Richard,  whom  Pope  S.  Gregory  sent  into  Spain  for  the  purpose,  pre- 
vailed, and  the  Roman  office  was  introduced  in  1078  "  (Florez,  Esp. 
Sagr,,  xxvi.  437).  "A  violent  sedition  broke  out  among  the  soldiers 
and  the  populace,  but  the  king,  being  haughty  and  resolved  on  carrying 
out  his  own  will,  neither  frightened  by  the  miracle  nor  yielding  to 
prayers,  but  threatening  death  and  confiscation  to  all  who  resisted  him, 
gave  orders  that  the  Galilean  {i.e.,  the  modern  Galilean  or  Roman) 
office  should  be  observed  throughout  his  dominions  ;  and  hence,  amid 
the  tears  and  lamentations  of  all,  came  the  proverb,  "  Quo  volunt  reges 
vadunt  leges "  {Roderici  Archiepiscopi  Chronicon^  vi.  26,  Granada, 
1545)- 


350        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

the  Roman  Missal.  We  know  that  he  introduced 
the  confession  and  the  prayers  before  the  Introit  and 
the  Salve  Regina  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  as- 
similating the  Mozarabic  to  the  Gregorian  office,  and 
a  number  of  festivals  of  saints,  ancient  and  modern, 
were  added.  We  cannot  be  sure  of  any  prayer  in 
any  extant  liturgy  being  earlier  than  the  seventh  or 
eighth  century,  but  we  can  have  no  assurance  of  any- 
thing in  Ximenes'  Mozarabic  Liturgy  being  earlier 
than  the  fifteenth  century,  except  when  it  differs  from 
the  Roman  office-books  or  is  confirmed  from  the 
genuine  writings  of  Isidore  of  Seville. 

'*  What  are  we  to  say  of  our  liturgy,"  exclaims 
Masdeu,  *'  which  was  the  single  object  of  all  the  per- 
secutions of  the  Italians  and  Frenchmen,  and  the 
cause  why  Popes  Alexander  II.,  a  Milanese;  Gregory 
VII.,  a  Tuscan  ;  and  Urban  II.,  a  Frenchman,  led 
astray  by  false  and  malignant  information,  so  unjustly 
gave  us  the  odious  title  of  impious  and  heretical 
Christians  ?  "^  The  assault  on  the  liturgy  was  some- 
times conducted  on  the  plea  of  its  containing  heretical 
tenets,  but  this  was  no  more  the  true  cause  of  super- 
seding the  Spanish  than  it  was  of  superseding  the 
Gallican  Liturgy  two  centuries  earlier.  The  main 
charge  brought  against  the  Mozarabic  office  was  the 
use  of  the  word  "  adoption  "  in  relation  to  the  Human 
Nature  of  our  Lord,  which  word,  however,  is  fre- 
quently used  innocently  in  the  sense  of  "  assump- 
tion," and  does  not  in  an}^  way  involve  the  Adop- 
tionist  heresy.  It  was  not  because  it  differed  in 
doctrine  from  the  Roman  that  Gregory  VII.  so   pas- 

^  Bisi.  Cril.,  xiii.  279. 


THE  MO Z ARABIC  LITURGY.  351 

sionately  sought  its  overthrow,  but  because  it  served 
as  a  symbol  of  the  independence  of  the  National 
Church  and  a  possible  centre  round  which  the  Pri- 
mate of  Toledo  might  gather  Spanish  ecclesiastics. 
After  the  fall  of  Toledo,  in  the  year  1085,  there  re- 
mained neither  primate  in  the  old  sense  of  the  word, 
nor  liturgy  in  its  old  form,  to  serve  as  an  obstacle 
to  the  ambition  of  the  Italian  Primate. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

FOUR  HUNDRED  YEARS  OF  TURMOIL  AND 
LICENCE. 

From  the  time  of  the  recovery  of  Toledo  in  the 
eleventh  century  to  the  accession  of  Fernando  and 
Isabel  in  the  fifteenth,  the  history  of  Spain  consists 
for  the  most  part  of  wars,  not  only  between  Chris- 
tians and  Mohammedans,  but  between  Christians  and 
Christians,  Moslems  and  Moslems.  Members  of  the 
same  nation,  city,  and  family  fought  fiercely  and 
treacherously  one  against  the  other.  There  was  no 
peace,  no  faith,  no  morality,  save  in  a  few  excep- 
tional cases.  Had  the  Christians  concentrated  their 
forces  the  Moors  could  not  have  resisted  them  for 
one  year,  for  the  internal  divisions  of  the  Moslem 
were  as  great  as  those  of  their  adversaries ;  but 
there  was  no  thought  of  Castile,  Leon,  GaHcia,  Por- 
tugal, Navarre,  Aragon,  Catalonia,  combining  together 
against  the  common  foe.  Christians  dreaded  Chris- 
tians more  than  the  infidels.  Each  petty  kingdom 
looked  alone  to  its  own  interests,  and  civil  war 
often  wasted  the  strength  which  was  already  so 
divided.^      Portugal    was    consolidating    itself.       Its 

^  "In  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  the  chronicle  of  Spain 
stands  out  confused,  troubled,  and  unrequiting.  A  historian  has 
counted  one  hundred  and  seventy-nine  revohitions  which  then  took 
place    in    the  Christian    states    by  the    side  of  sixty-one   in   Moslem 

352 


TURMOIL  AND  LICENCE.  353 

separate  existence  arose  from  a  gift  made  by  Alonzo 
VI.  to  his  natural  daughter,  Teresa,  and  her  husband, 
Henry  of  Lorraine.  Her  son  Alonzo  took  the  title 
of  king  on  the  occasion  of  a  great  victory  won  over 
the  Moors  at  Ourique  in  the  year  1 139,  and  in  the  year 
1254  Portugal  was  declared  for  ever  free  from  homage 
to  the  kings  of  Castile.  For  fifty  years  of  the  period 
under  consideration  Navarre  and  Aragon  were  united, 
but  they  separated  in  11 34,  and  continued  indepen- 
dent and  hostile  principalities,  until  Navarre  was 
finally  swallowed  up  by  Aragon  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  reign  of  Fernando.  Aragon,  into  which  Cata- 
lonia and  Valencia  were  also  absorbed,  became  the 
most  notable  Christian  power  in  the  North-East  of 
the  Peninsula,  as  the  united  kingdom  of  Castile, 
Leon,  and  Galicia  was  in  the  North-West.  The 
Spanish  Moslems,  suffering  even  more  from  the  allies 
whom  they  invited  to  their  help  from  Africa  than 
from  their  professed  and  hereditary  foes,  had  to 
withdraw  into  the  single  territory  of  Granada,  and 
to  do  homage  to  the  King  of  Castile  for  the  shrunken 
dominions  which,  like  those  of  their  Christian  rivals, 
were  torn  by  internal  dissension.  Never  was  a 
country  in  a  more  lamentable  state  than  Spain  during 
the  three  hundred  years  that  preceded  the  fall  of 
Granada.  Prescott's  description  of  Castile  under 
Henry  IV.  might  be  that  of  any  of  the  Christian 
principalities  under  almost  any  of  their  kings  :— ''  Dis- 
membered   by   faction,    her    revenues    squandered    on 

states.  It  is  a  discreditable  feature  of  the  history  of  that  comfortless 
period,  that  the  pugnacity  of  the  nobles  and  citizens  was  displayed 
more  against  their  fellow-religionists  than  against  the  enemy  of  the 
faith  "  (Dollinger,  PoHHcal  and  Religious  Dei'elopment  of  Spain). 


354        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

worthless  parasites,  the  grossest  violation  of  justice 
unredressed,  public  faith  became  a  jest,  the  treasury 
bankrupt,  the  court  a  brothel,  and  private  morals 
too  loose  and  audacious  to  seek  even  the  veil  of 
hypocrisy."  ^  The  foreign  Church,  which  had  sup- 
planted the  native  Church  in  the  eleventh  century, 
had  lost  all  power,  except  that  of  keeping  up  an 
uncharitable  hatred  of  infidels  and  heretics.  Occa- 
sionally a  Papal  legate  intervened,  and  sometimes 
for  good,  but  the  Primate  of  Italy  was  too  distant 
for  his  intervention,  even  when  well-intentioned,  to 
be  effectual,  and  the  Archbishops  of  Toledo  had  be- 
come rather  great  nobles  who  could  fight  in  the 
field  and  intrigue  in  the  court  than  men  to  exer- 
cise spiritual  influence  over  a  nation.  Many  of  the 
prelates,  like  Archbishop  Bernard,  were  foreigners 
intruded  by  the  Pope,  according  to  a  practice  which 
prevailed  until  restrained  by  the  firmness  of  Queen 
Isabel.  Unchecked  by  the  Church,  the  nation,  from 
the  highest  to  the  lowest,  became  demoralised,  and 
substituted  superstition,  bigotry,  and  outward  acts 
of  devotion  for  faith,  charity,  and  spiritual  religion, 
accepting  at  the  best  military  honour,  at  the  worst 
sheer  brutality  and  barbarism,  in  the  place  of  Christian 
morality.  A  glance  at  the  contemporary  sovereigns 
in  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century  will  be  sufii- 

1  Ft'rd.  and  Isabella^  c.  4.  To  have  at  once  twenty  mistresses  was 
considered  a  feather  in  the  cap  of  one  of  the  courtiers  of  Joao  II.  of 
Portugal,  1481-1495.  A  privilege  wliich  Rodrigo,  Archbishop  of 
Toledo,  brought  back  from  the  Fourth  Lateran  Council,  a.d,  121 5, 
was  that,  contrary  to  the  canons,  he  might  ordain  and  promote  to 
benefices  three  hundred  bastards — apparently  tlie  bastards  of  clerical 
parents.  To  receive  a  king's  base-born  daughter  in  marriage  was 
considered  an  honour  to  a  prince. 


TURMOIL  AND  LICENCE.  355 

cient  to  show  this.  The  King  of  Castile  and  Leon 
was  Pedro,  the  only  legitimate  son  of  Alonzo  XI., 
who  left  a  large  family  of  illegitimate  children.  His 
first  act  was  to  put  to  death  his  father's  mistress, 
after  pledging  his  faith  for  her  security.  The  next 
year  he  made  his  bodyguard  of  club-men  beat  out 
the  brains  of  Garcilasso,  Adelante  of  Castile,  in  his 
presence.  In  the  next  year  he  took  Maria  de  Padilla 
as  his  mistress,  and  at  the  same  time  married  Blanche 
de  Bourbon,  whom  he  left  two  days  after  his  mar- 
riage, that  he  might  return  to  Maria,  consigning  his 
bride  to  perpetual  imprisonment,  followed  in  a  later 
year  by  assassination  ;  and  he  had  the  Grand  Master 
of  Calatrava  murdered  to  make  way  for  Maria's 
brother.  The  next  year  he  married  Juana  de  Castro, 
two  of  his  prelates,  the  Bishops  of  Avila  and  Sala- 
manca, having  assured  Juana  that  the  marriage  with 
Blanche  was  null.  The  next  day  he  deserted  her 
for  ever.  A  few  years  later  he  murdered  his  half- 
brother,  Fadrique,  Master  of  Santiago.  Having  re- 
ceived him  in  the  most  friendly  manner,  he  caused 
the  doors  of  the  palace  to  be  closed,  and  ordered 
his  club-men  to  beat  out  his  brains,  as  he  vainly 
ran  from  door  to  door,  in  the  royal  presence ;  then 
having  poniarded  one  of  his  brother's  attendants  with 
his  own  hand,  he  dined  in  the  room  where  the 
corpses  lay.  These  murders  were  followed  by  those 
of  his  cousin,  the  Infante  of  Aragon,  and  his  aunt, 
the  queen-dowager  of  that  country.  He  seized  the 
King  of  Granada  at  a  banquet  to  which  he  had 
invited  him,  paraded  him  through  the  streets  of 
Seville,  and  stabbed  him  with  his  own  hand.     Shortly 

2  A 


356        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

afterwards  he  had  the  Archbishop  and  the  Dean  of 
Santiago  murdered  at  the  church-door  in  his  pre- 
sence, for  the  sake  of  the  wealth  of  the  See  and 
Chapter.  These  are  but  specimens  of  his  acts. 
Finally,  he  was  murdered  by  his  half-brother 
Enrique,  who  attacked  him,  when  he  was  unarmed, 
in  a  tent  into  which  he  had  been  beguiled. 

His  namesake  and  contemporary,  Pedro  of  Portugal, 
while  still  Infante,  at  once  married  a  wife  and  took 
a  mistress,  by  the  last  of  whom  he  had  four  children. 
On  the  death  of  his  wife  he  married  the  mistress  by 
Papal  dispensation  and  Episcopal  licence.  Having 
solemnly  denied  on  oath  that  the  woman  he  had 
married  was  his  wife,  his  father  put  her  to  death  ; 
and  thenceforward  the  object  of  Pedro's  life  was  to 
take  vengeance  on  all  whom  his  father  had  employed 
in  the  perpetration  of  the  deed.  Having  treacherously 
got  them  into  his  power  by  an  arrangement  with 
Pedro  of  Castile,  he  conveyed  them  into  a  torture- 
chamber,  gloated  over  their  suiferings,  added  to  them 
with  his  own  hands,  and  finally  watched  the  execu- 
tioner tear  their  still  beating  hearts  from  their  bodies. 

The  contemporaneous  King  of  Aragon,  another 
Pedro,  spent  his  life  in  feuds  with  his  stepmother 
and  half-brother  until  they  were  murdered  by  Pedro 
of  Castile,  in  civil  war  with  his  barons  and  estates, 
in  war  with  his  neighbours.  "  The  duplicity  of  this 
monarch,"  says  Dunham,  ''  was  only  equalled  by  his 
violence ;  of  sincerity  and  justice  he  was  wholly 
destitute,  and  in  savage  barbarity  he  was  scarcely 
exceeded  by  his  namesake  of  Castile."  ^ 

^  History  of  Spain  and  Porltigal,  iii.  143. 


TURMOIL  AND  LICENCE.  357 

The  contemporary  monarch  of  Navarre,  Charles  II., 
called  the  Bad,  was  a  man  '^  all  of  whose  actions  were 
characterised  by  the  basest  perfidy  or  cupidity,  yet  it 
may  be  doubted  whether  he  was  not,  on  the  whole, 
the  best  Peninsular  sovereign  then  living,  at  least 
among  the  Christians."  -^ 

Like  kings,  like  people.  Unless  Christianity  con- 
sists in  hating  unbelievers  and  stiffly  maintaining  a  set 
of  external  observances,  while  practising  perfidy  and 
indulging  in  unbridled  lust  and  barbarous  cruelty,  there 
was  little  Christianity  in  Spain.  Nor  could  interdicts, 
whether  few  or  many,  arbitrarily  imposed,  not  as  a 
penalty  for  hideous  immorality,  but  as  the  political  and 
ecclesiastical  interests  of  individual  Popes  demanded, 
bear  any  good  fruit.  Sometimes  the  Papal  interfer- 
ence was  plainly  an  encouragement  of  vice.  Jayme 
of  Aragon,  called  the  Conqueror,  would  carry  off  by 
force  matrons  or  maidens  whose  faces  pleased  him. 
When  the  Bishop  of  Gerona  reproved  him  for  his 
extraordinary  licentiousness  and  debauchery,  he  cut 
out  the  bishop's  tongue.  The  prelates  of  Catalonia 
excommunicated  him  for  this  act,  but  he  appealed 
to  Rome,  and  received  absolution  on  condition  of 
his  completing  the  erection  of  a  monastery,  assigning 
it  an  income  of  200  marks  per  annum,  giving  an 
income  of  600  marks  to  a  hospital,  and  building  a 
chapel.  Sometimes  the  absence  of  an  interdict  is 
unaccountable.  When  the  Archbishop  of  Zaragoza 
was  spirited  away  by  the  King  of  Aragon  and 
secretly  murdered,  no  questions  seem  to  have  been 
asked,  no  penalties  inflicted.       Probably  "  a  benedic- 

^  History  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  iii.  37. 


358        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

tion"  to  the  Pope  had  hushed  the  matter  up.  The 
usual  occasion  of  imposing  an  interdict  was  the 
marriage  of  sovereigns  within  the  forbidden  degrees 
of  consanguinity  or  affinity.  Political  reasons  caused 
these  marriages  frequently  to  be  made,  the  royal 
families  being  connected  with  one  another,  and  any 
connexion,  however  distant,  being  sufficient  to  dis- 
qualify for  marriage,  except  by  Papal  licence.  When 
once  made,  the  king  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Pope, 
who  could  at  any  time  separate  him  from  his  wife, 
and  who  exerted  this  power  or  left  it  dormant  accord- 
ing to  his  pleasure. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

THE  MILITARY  ORDERS  AND  THE  EARLIER 
INQUISITION. 

Two  quasi-religious  institutions  grew  up  during  this 
period,  which  were  characteristic  of  the  time  and 
of  the  nation  in  which  they  originated  and  were 
domiciled.  The  first  of  these  was  the  Military  Orders, 
the  second  was  the  Inquisition. 

The  first  of  the  Spanish  military  orders  to  be 
established  was  that  of  the  Knights  of  Calatrava. 
The  town  of  Calatrava  had  been  put  into  the  hands 
of  the  Templars  for  defence  against  the  Moslem,  and 
they  had  abandoned  it  as  untenable.  The  King  of 
Castile  gave  it  to  be  understood  that  he  would  be- 
stow the  fortress  and  town  on  any  knights  who 
would  occupy  it.  Two  monks,  Raymond  and  Velas- 
quez, accepted  the  king's  offer.  They  collected  round 
them  20,000  men,  took  possession  of  the  town,  and 
instituted  the  Order  of  Calatrava,  which  received  the 
sanction  of  Pope  Alexander  III.  in  1154,  and  from  it 
sprang,  about  two  centuries  later,  the  Order  of  Mon- 
tesa  in  Valencia. 

The  second  of  the  Spanish  orders  was  that  of 
S.  lago,  which  was  established  for  the  purpose  of 
protecting  pilgrims  on  their  way  to  Compostela.  The 
first  members  of  the  institution  were  men  who  had 


36o        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

been  leading  a  freebooter's  life  in  Leon,  and  were 
desirous  of  making  reparation  for  the  evils  that  they 
had  done.      It  received  the  Papal  sanction  in  1175. 

The  third  order,  that  of  Alcantara,  was  established 
a  few  years  later,  and  was  at  the  beginning  attached 
to  that  of  Calatrava. 

Those  who  first  constituted  these  orders  were  men 
of  earnestness  and  religious  zeal.  They  took  the 
usual  vows  of  obedience,  poverty,  and  chastity.  They 
were  first  soldiers  and  then  monks.  Each  order  was 
ruled  by  a  grand  master,  under  whom  there  were 
comendadores  or  conniianders,  who  were  the  heads  of 
the  large  districts  which  were  soon  acquired  by  the 
orders.  As  usual,  the  institutions  in  their  corporate 
capacity  became  very  wealthy,  great  gifts  being  made 
to  them  by  the  sovereigns  of  Leon  and  Castile,  and 
any  lands  which  they  recovered  from  the  infidels 
passing  into  their  own  possession.  The  Order  of 
S.  James  could  number  400  knights  and  1000  lances, 
and  the  grand-mastership  was  worth  no  less  than 
60,000  ducats,  while  it  gave  an  absolute  mastery  over 
the  whole  force  of  the  order.  It  was  only  to  be 
expected  that  the  grand-mastership  and  the  comman- 
deries  should  be  objects  greatly  coveted,  and  when 
they  carried  with  them  wealth  and  power,  they  be- 
came filled  by  worldly  and  ambitious  men.  More 
than  this,  corruption  of  manners  and  dissoluteness  of 
life  invaded  the  military  orders  of  Spain,  as  well 
as  the  Knights  Templars  and  Hospitallers,  with  even 
greater  rapidity  and  thoroughness  than  the  other 
monastic  orders.  When  Don  Jayme,  son  of  Jayme 
II.  of  Aragon,  resigned   his   prospects   of  a   kingdom 


MILITARY  ORDERS:  EARLIER  INQUISITION.     361 

in  order  that  he  might  the  more  freely  indulge  himself 
in  swinish  debauchery,  he  selected  first  the  Order  of 
Calatrava,  and  then  that  of  Montesa,  into  which  to 
retire  in  order  to  gratify  his  debased  passions  with- 
out disturbance.  By  a  wise  act  of  Queen  Isabel, 
the  mastership  of  these  orders  was  attached  to  the 
crown. 

The  two  great  military  orders  of  the  Templars  and 
the  Hospitallers  also  had  great  possessions  in  Spain. 
When  the  storm  burst  upon  the  Templars  in  the  year 
1309,  Pope  Clement  appointed  the  Archbishops  of 
Toledo  and  Santiago,  the  Bishops  of  Valencia  and 
Zaragoza,  and  other  prelates  to  be  judges  of  their 
cause  in  Castile  and  Aragon.  A  Synod  met  at  Sala- 
manca for  the  kingdom  of  Castile,  and  acquitted 
the  Templars  of  the  charges  brought  against  them. 
Nevertheless,  the  order  was  abolished  by  the  Pope 
in  the  following  year,  and  King  Fernando  IV.  took 
possession  of  their  lands  and  castles.  In  Aragon 
the  Knights  Templars  stood  on  the  defensive,  but  they 
made  their  submission  to  King  Jayme  II.  on  his 
marching  against  them.  Having  heard  their  defence, 
the  king  restored  them  their  possessions,  and  when 
the  order  was  abolished,  the  knights  were  treated 
with  less  rigour  than  elsewhere. 

The  history  of  the  Inquisition  comprises  two  periods. 
In  its  modern  form  it  was  established  in  the  reign  of 
Fernando  and  Isabel,  but  in  its  earlier  phase  it  origi- 
nated at  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century,  and 
^owes  its  existence  to  Pope  Innocent  III.  In  the 
early   Church   the   only   punishment   for   heresy  was 


362        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

separation  from  the  body  of  the  faithful.  It  was 
Spain  that  first  spilt  the  blood  of  an  heresiarch, 
when  the  Emperor  Maximus,  at  the  instance  of  two 
bishops,  put  to  death  Priscillian,  causing  thereby  a 
thrill  of  horror  in  the  Christian  Church,  which  found 
its  expression  in  Martin  of  Tours  and  Ambrose  of 
Milan ;  and  it  was  an  emperor  of  Spanish  blood, 
Theodosius,  who  was  remarkable  for  the  severity 
of  his  laws  against  heretics.  We  have  seen  that 
the  Councils  of  Toledo,  from  the  time  of  Reccared 
to  Roderic,  gave  the  reins  to  passion  and  persecuted 
the  Jews  with  savage  cruelty.  Nevertheless,  it  was 
not  in  Spain  nor  for  Spain  that  the  Inquisition  was 
primarily  instituted,  but  in  France,  for  the  purpose 
of  opposing  the  spiritual  revolt  of  Provence.  In  the 
year  1204  Innocent  III.  appointed  three  monks  as 
legates  of  the  Apostolic  See  for  the  destruction  of 
heresy,  the  recovery  of  heretics  to  the  Catholic  faith, 
the  excommunication  of  the  impenitent  and  their  de- 
livery to  the  secular  power  for  punishment.  The 
legates  were  sent  into  the  South  of  France,  and  there 
associated  with  themselves  two  Spaniards,  one  the 
Bishop  of  Osma,  the  other  Dominic  de  Guzman, 
afterwards  known  as  S.  Dominic.  One  of  the 
legates  was  assassinated  by  the  Albigenses,  sub- 
jects of  Raymond  VI.,  Count  of  Toulouse,  who 
embraced  their  cause.  The  Pope  proclaimed  a 
crusade  against  them,  which  was  pitilessly  con- 
ducted by  Simon  de  Montfort,  and  thousands  of 
the  Albigenses  were  burnt  by  the  Papal  legate  and 
Dominic.  In  12 15  Innocent  III.  held  the  Fourth 
Lateran  Council,   which  ordered  that  heretics  should 


MILITARY  ORDERS:  EARLIER  INQUISITION.     363 

be  given  over  to  the  secular  arm  and  their  goods 
confiscated ;  that  all  who  v^^ere  suspected  of  heresy 
were  to  purge  themselves  by  oath  or  be  regarded  as 
heretics;  that  princes  were  to  take  oath  to  drive  out  all 
heretics  from  their  dominions ;  that  if  they  neglected 
to  do  so  they  were  to  be  excommunicated,  their  sub- 
jects .  were  to  be  forbidden  to  obey  them,  and  their 
lands  to  be  given  to  faithful  Catholics  ;  that  those  who 
engaged  in  a  crusade  against  the  heretics  should  enjoy 
the  privileges  granted  to  the  crusaders  of  Palestine ; 
that  all  who  gave  assistance  to  heretics  should  them- 
selves be  treated  as  heretics,  and  that  every  bishop 
should  compel  the  leading  citizens  in  his  diocese  to 
give  information  as  to  the  existence  of  heretics  in  it. 

The  Count  of  Toulouse  was  not  powerful  enough 
to  maintain  the  cause  of  liberty  against  the  Pope, 
and  against  the  King  of  France  urged  forward  by 
the  Papal  legates.  Peace  was  granted  him  on  the 
condition  of  his  driving  all  heretics  out  of  his 
dominions,  and  Councils  held  at  Toulouse,  Nar- 
bonne,  and  Beziers  firmly  established  the  Inquisi- 
tion in  France  by  the  year  1233.  Pope  Honorius 
had  already  established  it  in  Italy.  Gregory  IX. 
succeeded  in  introducing  it  into  Spain.  In  1232 
he  addressed  a  letter  to  Esparrago,  Archbishop  of 
Tarragona,  desiring  that  heretics  and  favourers  of 
heretics  should  be  sought  for  and  punished.  Espar- 
rago's  successor  in  the  See  of  Tarragona  was  the 
first  Spanish  bishop  to  execute  the  Papal  commands, 
with  the  help  of  a  Dominican  monk ;  and  a  few  years 
later  a  Council  w^as  held  at  Tarragona,  which  ordered 
that  all  who  were  impenitent  should  be  handed  over 


364        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  IN  SPAIN. 

to  secular  justice.  In  1254  Innocent  IV.  ordered  the 
Dominicans  of  Lerida,  Barcelona,  and  Perpignan  to 
supply  Jayme  I.  with  inquisitors  in  number  sufficient 
for  the  whole  kingdom  of  Aragon,  which  became  the 
headquarters  of  the  inquisition  in  Spain.  Castile 
was  still  free  from  it,  though  Fernando  III.  is  said 
to  have  shown  his  religious  zeal  by  bringing  faggots 
with  his  own  hands  to  burn  heretics  seized  in  his 
dominions.  The  inquisitors  took  cognisance  of  all 
cases  of  heresy  or  suspicion  of  heresy,  and  could 
demand  the  assistance  of  the  civil  power,  the  refusal 
to  grant  which  made  a  magistrate  himself  suspected. 
At  first  they  were  unpaid  officers ;  then  the  bishops 
were  ordered  by  the  Pope  to  supply  the  necessary 
funds ;  but  by-and-by  it  was  found  that  the  confis- 
cations imposed  by  the  tribunals  easil}^  covered  the 
necessary  expenses,  including  the  salaries  of  the 
judges.  When  the  inquisitor  arrived  at  a  town  he 
summoned  the  chief  magistrate.  If  the  magistrate 
disobeyed  the  summons  the  inquisitor  suspended 
him,  and,  if  necessary,  proceeded  to  exconnnunication. 
Generally  the  magistrate  yielded  without  difficulty. 
Then  the  inquisitor  issued  an  order  to  all  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  town  desiring  them  to  secretly  denounce 
such  heretics  as  there  might  be  among  them.  As 
soon  as  any  one  was  denounced  he  was  arrested 
and  sent  to  prison.  No  information  was  given  him 
as  to  his  accusers,  but  he  was  interrogated  by  the 
inquisitor,  and  if  condemned,  as  was  usually  the  case, 
he  was  handed  over  to  the  civil  authorities  to  be 
burnt,  having  previously  undergone  such  tortures  as 
the    inquisitors    thought    proper    to    submit    him    to. 


MILITARY  ORDERS;  EARLIER  INQUISITION.     365 

Those  who  were  not  burnt  were  imprisoned  for 
life,  or  banished,  or  deprived  of  their  goods.  Ab- 
juration did  not  avail  for  much.  The  Council  of 
Tarragona  held  in  1242  ordered  that  all  who  had 
once  been  found  to  be  heretics  should,  although  con- 
verted, be  imprisoned  for  life,  while  those  who  had 
favoured'  heresy  should  for  two  years  do  penance  in  a 
white  sheet  and  with  naked  feet,  and  be  struck  with 
a  whip  by  the  bishop  or  a  parish  priest  as  they 
walked  in  procession  on  every  Sunday  in  Lent  and 
other  festivals.  Other  regulations  of  the  same  kind 
were  made  by  the  same  Council.  Such  was  the 
Inquisition  in  its  primary  form.  It  succeeded  in 
crushing  and  annihilating  the  Albigensian  uprising 
against  Rome  in  France.  It  established  itself  in 
Italy;  it  was  domiciled  in  Aragon,  including  Barce- 
lona and  Valencia,  becoming  the  recognised  instru- 
ment by  which  the  Roman  See  exercised  discipline 
over  National  Churches,  displacing  the  primitive 
system  of  episcopal  and  synodical  jurisdiction.  But 
it  was  still  kept  out  of  Castile,  and  had  not  made 
much  way  in  Portugal.  The  marriage  of  Fernando 
of  Aragon  with  Isabel  of  Castile  brought  it  into  the 
latter  kingdom.  It  was  represented  to  Queen  Isabel 
that  the  institution  was  necessary  for  the  purpose 
of  dealing  with  the  Jews,  especially  with  those  Jews 
who  had  professed  themselves  Christians  but  in  their 
heart  adhered  to  their  own  religion.  Idle  stories 
were  told  of  the  murder  of  Christian  children  by 
the  Jews,  and  of  insults  offered  by  them  to  the 
images  of  Christ.  Isabel  shrank  from  admitting 
the    terrible    machinery    of   the    Inquisition    into   her 


366        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

realm,  but  she  was  told  by  her  confessor  that  it 
was  her  duty  to  introduce  it,  and  under  this  pressure 
she  soHcited  a  ^apa;  Bull  for  the  establishment  of  the 
tribunal  in  Castile.  The  Bull  arrived  at  the  end  of 
the  year  1478,  bu.  Isabel  would  not  at  first  allow 
it  to  be  put  into  execution.  She  tried  other  means. 
She  desired  Cardinal  Mendoza,  Archbishop  of  Seville, 
and  Fernando  of  Talavera,  afterwards  Archbishop  of 
Granada,  to  write  books  which,  she  hoped,  might 
convert  men  to  the  faith  ;  but  her  woman's  pity 
was  not  able  long  to  resist.  Fernando  was  in 
favour  of  its  admission,  both  because  he  was  an 
Aragonese  and  also  because  he  saw  in  the  Inqusition 
a  means  of  getting  money  by  confiscations.  The 
Pope's  nuncio  and  the  Dominicans  did  not  cease  to 
urge  it,  and  in  September  1480  the  two  sovereigns 
nominated  two  Dominicans  as  inquisitors.^  The  in- 
quisitors proceeded  to  Seville.  The  magistrates  re- 
fused to  co-operate  with  them,  and  the  inhabitants 
of  the  towns  and  villages  fled  for  protection  to  the 
lands  of  the  Duke  of  Medina-Sidonia  and  the  Marquis 
of  Cadiz.  An  angry  ordinance  was  addressed  to 
those  noblemen  by  the  king,  and  the  inquisitors 
declared  the  flight  of  the  people  to  be  a  proof  of 
their  guilt,  whom  they  commanded,  therefore,  to  return 
under  penalty  of  the  sequestration  of  their  goods.  A 
short  period  was  fixed  during  which  confession  of 
guilt  might  be  voluntarily  made.  At  the  end  of 
that    time    the    inquisitors   published    a    second   ordi- 

1  A  Portuguese  Jew  named  Samuel  Usgue,  in  a  book  published  in 
1553,  called  De  Consola^do  de  trihula^oens  de  Israel^  declares  Isabel 
to  have  been  more  disposed  to  persecute  than  Fernando. 


MILITARY  ORDERS:  EARLIER  INQUISITION.     ^67 

nance  ordering,    on    pain   of   mortal   sin   and   excom- 
munication, the  denunciation   of  every  one  known  or 
supposed  to  be  a  heretic  within   three  days.      They 
issued    a    book    containing    a    number    of   indications 
of  Judaism,    any    of  which   were    sufficient    to  make 
denunciation   obligatory.      If  the  converted  Jew  paid 
respect  to   the   Sabbath  by  putting   on   a  clean   shirt 
and  better  clothes  on  that  day  ;  if  he  did  not  keep  the 
Christian   fast-days,  or  did   keep  the  Jewish   fast  or 
feast  days  ;  if  he  sat  at  table  with  Jews  ;  if  he  did  not 
add   the   Gloria  Patri  in    reciting  the   Psalms  ;   if  he 
had  a   Hebrew   name ;    if  he   invited   his   friends    to 
dinner  before  taking  a  journey  according  to  a  Jewish 
custom  ;  if  he  turned  his  face  to  the  wall  when  dying ; 
a  presumption  was  caused   that  he  was   still   a  con- 
cealed Jew,  and  he  must  be  denounced  as  such.     The 
reign    of    terror    began.      On   January    6,    1481,   six 
men  were    burnt   as  concealed   Jews  ;    on    the   26th 
of   March,    seventeen  ;    a    larger    number    in    April. 
By  the   beginning  of  November  298  had   been  burnt 
and   seventy-nine  imprisoned  for  life  in  the   town  of 
Seville   alone.       In    the   district  round    Seville   2000 
were  burnt   alive,   more   than   2000    burnt    in   effigy, 
and  17,000  degraded  and  otherwise  punished.      The 
Prefect   of  Seville  was    obliged   to   construct   a  vast 
scaffold   made  of  stone  and   brick    for  the  execution 
of  the  condemned,    called    the    Burning-place,    which 
was  not  destroyed  till  the   beginning  of  the  present 
century,    in    the    French    war.       Multitudes   fled   the 
country.       The  work   went  on   steadily  and   rapidly, 
and   its  greater   thoroughness  was  guaranteed  by  the 
appointment  of  Thomas  de  Torquemada  as  the  first 


368        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

inquisitor-general  for  Spain — a  man  who  seemed 
made  for  the  post,  being  at  once  sincere,  devout, 
ascetic,  and  pitiless  on  principle,  if  not  naturally 
devoid  of  pity. 

Torquemada,  having  completed  the  organisation 
of  the  Holy  Office  by  a  new  set  of  regulations  so 
framed  as  to  make  it  almost  impossible  for  any 
accused  person  to  escape,  established  four  inferior 
tribunals  at  Seville,  Cordova,  Jaen,  and  Ciudad  Real. 
He  also  sent  inquisitors  into  the  kingdom  of  Aragon 
— one  of  whom  was  named  Peter  Arbues  d'Epila. 
Aragon  had  been  the  home  of  the  earlier  Inquisition, 
and,  perhaps,  for  that  reason  it  resisted  to  the  utmost 
the  reintroduction  of  it  in  its  new  form.  Zara- 
goza,  Valencia,  Lerida,  Barcelona,  as  well  as  Majorca, 
Sardinia,  and  Sicily,  raised  an  opposition  which  almost 
took  the  form  of  an  insurrection.  Arbues  began 
the  work  of  burning  at  the  stake.  Pressed  beyond 
bounds,  the  Aragonese  formed  a  conspiracy  for  his 
assassination.  Knowing  the  feelings  of  hatred  enter- 
tained towards  him,  Arbues  wore  armour  under  his 
dress  and  a  helmet  of  iron.  The  conspirators  watched 
him  into  the  cathedral,  where  matins  were  being 
said,  about  midnight,  and  as  he  knelt  by  one  of  the 
columns  they  fell  upon  him,  and  in  spite  of  his  coat- 
of-mail,  left  him  in  a  dying  state.  The  Archbishop 
of  Zaragoza  was  at  this  time  a  boy  of  thirteen  years 
of  age,  a  natural  son  of  King  Fernando.  He  mounted 
his  horse,  and  galloping  from  spot  to  spot,  calmed  the 
partisans  of  Arbues,  promising  them  full  vengeance. 
That  vengeance  was  taken  without  mercy.  One  of  the 
conspirators,  named  Uranso,   turned   king's  evidence, 


MILITARY  ORDERS:  EARLIER  INQUISITION.     369 

and  on  his  information  two  hundred  citizens  were 
seized  by  the  inquisitors  and  dragged  through  the 
streets  of  the  city,  and  after  having  their  hands  cut 
off,  they  were  hanged.  Their  corpses  were  cut  in 
pieces,  which  were  placed  along  the  public  streets. 
The  only  mercy  shown  to  Uranso  was  that  his  hands 
were  cut  off  after,  instead  of  before,  his  death.  The 
combined  power  of  the  king  and  the  Pope  riveted 
the  chains  of  the  Inquisition  alike  on  Castile  and 
Aragon. 

In  1492,  the  year  in  which  Granada  was  reduced, 
a  royal  edict  was  issued  by  Fernando  and  Isabel 
ordering  the  expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  Spain  at 
the  end  of  four  months.  The  victims  had  known 
their  danger,  and  to  escape  their  fate  had  offered 
Fernando  30,000  ducats  for  his  military  expenses, 
promising  at  the  same  time  a  complete  obedience  to 
the  laws.  Fernando  and  Isabel  had  been  willing  to 
accept  these  terms,  but  Torquemada  presented  him- 
self before  them  with  a  crucifix  in  his  hand,  saying, 
"Judas  sold  his  Master  for  thirty  pieces  of  silver; 
your  highnesses  are  intending  to  sell  Him  again  for 
30,000  pieces.  Here  He  is;  take  Him;  sell  Him 
quickly."  Isabel  could  never  hold  her  ground  against 
a  man  who  spoke  in  the  name  of  religion.  She  gave 
way,  and  the  edict  was  issued.  A  few  Jews  allowed 
themselves  to  be  baptized;  170,000  fled  the  kingdom. 
Innocent  VIII.  published  a  Bull  commanding  all 
Governments  to  seize  the  fugitives  and  give  them 
up  to  the  inquisitors.  But,  to  the  honour  of  human 
nature,  his  orders  were  in  no  case  obeyed. 

Strong  in   the  support  of  the   Pope  and  the  king. 


370.      niSTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  SPAIN. 

Torquemada  did  not  hesitate  to  strike  at  the  Spanish 
bishops.  Davila  had  been  Bishop  of  Segovia  for  thirty 
years,  and  his  father  had  been  long  since  dead.  Torque- 
mada charged  the  latter  with  having  died  in  Judaism, 
and  therefore  demanded  that  his  remains  should  be 
exhumed  and  burnt  and  his  goods  confiscated.  His 
son  had  to  journey  to  Rome  to  lay  the  case  before 
Alexander  VI.  Aranda  was  Bishop  of  Calahorra, 
Torquemada  commenced  a  process  against  his  father. 
The  bishop  went  to  Rome,  with  a  less  fortunate  re- 
sult. His  natural  son,  whom  he  took  with  him, 
became  a  favourite  with  Pope  Alexander  VI.,  but 
the  bishop  himself  was  degraded  and  imprisoned. 

In  1498  Torquemada  died,  after  having  been  grand- 
inquisitor  for  eighteen  years.  Llorente  calculates  that 
during  these  eighteen  years  10,220  persons  were 
burnt  alive  and  6860  in  effigy,  and  that  97,321 
suffered  confiscation  of  goods,  imprisonment  for  life, 
or  disqualification  for  holding  any  office.'^  Torque- 
mada raged  against  books  only  less  than  against 
men.  In  1490  he  burnt  in  Salamanca  6000  volumes, 
including  Hebrew  Bibles,  which  were  regarded  as 
Jewish. 

The  second  inquisitor-general  was  Diego  Deza.  The 
Jews  had  hitherto  been  the  object  of  the  Inquisition's 
persecution.  Deza  persuaded  Fernando  and  Isabel 
to  use  the  same  instrument  against  the  Moors  in 
the  kingdom  of  Granada,  which  had  passed  into  their 
hands  in  1492.  It  was  true  that  the  royal  word 
had   been   passed  that  the  Inquisition  should   not   be 

^  Prescott  holds  that  Llorente's  numbers  are  exaggerated,  owing  to 
a  fault  in  his  method  of  calculation  {Ferd.  and  Is.,  ii,  ch.  xxvi.). 


MILITARY  ORDERS:  EARLIER  INQUISITION.     371 

established  in  Granada,  but  the  queen  was  persuaded, 
against  her  own  judgment,  that  she  would  still  keep 
her  promise  if  she  allowed  the  inquisitors  0/  Cor- 
dova to  exercise  authority  in  the  principality  of 
Granada.  Fernando  de  Talavera  had  been  appointed 
the  first  Bishop  of  Granada  after  the  conquest  of  the 
country.  He  was  a  man  of  singular  gentleness  for 
the  age  in  which  he  lived,  so  much  so  that,  at  a  later 
time,  he  became  himself  the  subject  of  persecution 
by  the  Inquisition.  This  gentleness  had  its  effect 
in  inclining  the  minds  of  numerous  Moors  towards 
Christianity.  Ximenes  de  Cisneros,  now  Archbishop 
of  Toledo,  impatient  of  the  slow  progress  made, 
associated  himself  with  Talavera  in  his  work,  and 
succeeded,  partly  by  zeal  and  partly  by  bribery,  in 
bringing  many  of  the  Moslems  to  baptism.  Meet- 
ing at  length  with  opposition,  he  had  recourse  to 
harsher  measures,  which  led  at  last  to  an  insur- 
rection. Unabashed,  the  archbishop  reminded  the 
sovereigns  that  all  was  well,  for  that  they  had  now 
an  excuse  for  breaking  the  promise  of  protection 
which  they  had  given/  Fernando  easily,  Isabel 
with  greater  difficulty,  were  persuaded,  and  in  the 
year  1502  they  commanded  all  Moors  to  depart  from 
Spain,  forbidding  them  to  cross  to  Africa,  and  de- 
siring them  to  find  a  domicile  elsewhere.  Those  who 
submitted  to  baptism  and  remained  behind  were  given 
over  to  the  care  of  the  Inquisition.     Deza  was  grand- 

^  "  Que  sus  Altezas  y  sus  sucesores  para  :?iempi"e  jamas  dejaran  vivir  a 
todo  el  comun,  chicos  y  grandes,  en  su  ley,  y  no  les  consentiraii  quitar 
sus  mesquidas.  ,  .  .  Que  ningun  Moro  ni  Mora  seran  apremiados  a  ser 
cristianos  contra  su  vokmtad "  (Marmol.,  Historia  del  Kebelion  del 
reyno  de  Granada  ;  quoted  in  De  Castro's  Intolerance  in  Spain,  p.  27). 

2  B 


372        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

inquisitor  for  eight  years,  and  during  this  time  he  is 
supposed  to  have  burnt  2592  persons  aUve  and  896 
in  effigy,  and  to  have  imposed  the  penalty  of  im- 
prisonment or  confiscation  of  goods  on  34>952- 

Deza  having  resigned.  Cardinal  Ximenes  de  Cis- 
neros  was  the  third  inquisitor-general.  Ximenes  was 
a  great  minister,  a  great  bishop,  and  a  patron  of 
literature.  The  reputation  wt^ich  he  bears  in  the 
world  does  not  depend  upon  his  character  and  acts  as 
inquisitor,  else  he  would  hardly  rise  above  the  level 
of  Torquemada.  It  is  supposed  that  in  his  early 
years  he  was  inchned  to  reform  the  processes  of 
the  Inquisition,  and  so  diminish  its  influence  and 
change  its  character ;  but  when  he  found  himself  the 
despotic  master  of  an  almost  omnipotent  institution, 
he  altered  his  views  and  showed  himself  a  stubborn 
maintainer  of  the  privileges  of  the  Holy  Office,  going 
so  far  as  to  find  vast  sums  of  money  for  Fernando, 
to  prevent  his  reforming  the  institution  by  doing 
away  with  the  secrecy  under  which  its  proceedings 
were  concealed  ;  and,  again,  he  exercised  a  similar 
malign  influence  over  Charles  V.,  when  the  latter 
was  disposed  to  abolish  the  Inquisition  throughout 
his  dominions.  He  was  inquisitor-general  for  eleven 
years,  during  which  period  3564  persons  are  said  to 
have  been  burnt  ahve,  1232  in  effigy,  and  48,059 
otherwise  made  to  suffer. 


CHAPTER   XXVIII. 

CARDINAL  XIMENES  DE  CI SN EROS. 

XiMENES  appears  in  his  worst  light  as  a  proselytiser 
and  an  inquisitor.  Regarded  in  other  aspects,  he 
hardly  appears  to  be  the  same  man.  His  two  prede- 
cessors in  the  See  of  Toledo  left  their  mark  in  history  : 
Ximenes  made  history.  Alonzo  Carillo,  who  had  been 
Archbishop  of  Toledo  in  the  reign  of  Henry  IV. 
and  the  earlier  part  of  Isabel's  reign,  was  a  turbu- 
lent, self-willed  noble,  who  took  his  full  share  in  the 
political  intrigues  and  rebellions  of  his  time  and  lost 
his  ecclesiastical  in  his  secular  character.  He  and 
his  nephew,  the  Marquis  of  Villena,  were  two  of  the 
greatest  men  in  the  Castilian  aristocracy,  and  they 
took  their  part  in  a  scene  which  has  scarcely  its 
parallel  in  history.  A  scaffold  was  erected  in  the 
plain  of  Avila,  and  on  it  was  seated  an  effigy  of 
the  king  in  his  royal  robes,  with  sword,  sceptre,  and 
crown.  Before  this  figure  a  declaration  was  read  de- 
claring Henry's  deposition  on  account  of  his  tyranny 
and  heresy.^  At  its  conclusion  Archbishop  Carillo 
mounted    the   scaffold    and    tore   the  crown   from  the 

^  His  heresy  was  proved  by  his  not  liaving  confessed  twice  in  forty 
years: — "Vinieron  al  rey  don  Enrique  dicendo  como  era  ereje  y  che 
en  quaranta  aRos  ne  se  fallava  averse  confesado  dos  veces  "  (Fray  Pedro 
de  Roxas,  Repei-torio  de  algnnos  Actos  y  C<>sas  Singulares  ;  quoted  by 
De  Castro,  Intolerance  in  Spain,  p.  9). 

373 


374        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

head.  The  Marquis  of  Villena  and  others  snatched 
away,  one  after  the  other,  the  sceptre,  the  sword, 
and  the  other  insignia  ;  after  which  the  image  was 
thrust  from  the  throne,  and  Henry's  young  brother, 
Alonzo,  was  placed  on  it.  Shortly  afterwards  the 
archbishop  headed  the  army  of  Prince  Alonzo  in  the 
battle  of  Olmeda.  He  favoured  Isabel's  claims  to 
the  throne,  and  was  influential  in  establishing  her 
in  it.  Then  he  threw  himself  on  the  opposite  side 
through  jealousy  of  Mendoza,  and  ended  his  turbulent 
life  in  disgrace,  occupying  his  later  days  in  the  study 
of  alchemy. 

His  successor  in  the  See  of  Toledo  was  Pedro 
Gonzales  de  Mendoza.  He  too  was  a  great  Castilian 
noble  rather  than  an  archbishop,  but  a  noble  of  a 
different  stamp  from  Carillo.  Licentiousness  was 
at  this  time  the  rule  among  the  Spanish  clergy  ;  or 
rather,  the  priests  and  bishops,  being  forbidden  mar- 
riage, gave  themselves  up  to  loose  amours,  which 
were  hardly  considered  to  be  a  reproach.  Mendoza 
left  behind  him  children  born  of  different  noble- 
women, whose  birth  was  not  regarded  as  a  shame 
either  to  him  or  to  them,  but  he  was  a  man  who  had 
all  the  virtues  of  a  great  noble  as  well  as  the 
vices.  He  was  munificent  in  his  liberality,  and  never 
descended  to  a  mean  act  for  the  sake  of  injuring 
another  or  revenging  himself.  He  and  Archbishop 
Carillo  both  fought  bravely  in  the  battle  of  Toro, 
dressed  in  full  armour.  He  was  on  the  side  of 
mercy  in  dealing  with  the  Jews,  and  if  he  could 
have  had  his  own  way,  would  have  preferred  to  con- 
vert them  by  persuasion,  or  even   to  leave  them  alone 


CARDINAL  XIMENES  DE  CISNEROS.  375 

in  their  perversity,  to  burning  them  in  the  autos-da-fe. 
Having  no  personal  interests  to  serve,  he  v^^as  a 
favourite  at  court,  and  on  one  occasion  smoothed 
over  a  serious  rupture  between  the  Catholic  kings 
and  the  Pope,  arising  from  the  Pope's  encroach- 
ing on  the  royal  rights  of  patronage.  On  his  death- 
bed he  is  said  to  have  suggested  to  the  queen  the 
name  of  Ximenes  as  his  successor. 

Ximenes  was  born  in  the  year  1436,  and  sent  to 
the  University  of  Salamanca.  Thence  he  proceeded 
to  Rome  and  obtained  a  Papal  Bull  promising  him 
the  first  valuable  benefice  which  became  vacant  in 
the  diocese  of  Toledo.  When  the  vacancy  occurred 
Ximenes  took  possession  of  his  living,  but  Arch- 
bishop Carillo  had  destined  the  post  for  a  follower 
of  his  own,  and  on  Ximenes  refusing  to  give  it  up 
the  archbishop  put  him  in  prison,  where  he  remained 
for  six  years.  Not  long  after  his  release  he  joined 
the  Franciscans,  and  led  a  life  of  severe  asceticism.  On 
Talavera's  becoming  Archbishop  of  Granada,  Ximenes 
was  made  confessor  to  the  queen,  and  with  her  car- 
ried out  a  much-needed  reformation  of  the  Spanish 
monasteries.  It  was  with  difficulty  that  he  could 
be  persuaded  to  accept  the  Archbishopric  of  Toledo. 
Yet  he  was  a  man  who  loved  power  and  who  exercised 
it  despotically.  His  monastic  reforms  raised  him  a 
host  of  enemies ;  no  fewer  than  a  thousand  Francis- 
cans were  said  to  have  deserted  Spain  and  gone  to 
Africa  rather  than  submit  to  them.  The  Augustinians 
sent  a  canon  to  Rome  to  make  complaint,  but  Ximenes 
pursued  him,  overtook  him  in  Italy,  brought  him  back, 
and  sent  him  to  prison   for  two  years  for  his  pre- 


376        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

sumption.  Ximenes  was  equally  powerful  under 
Isabel,  Philip  I.,  and  Fernando.  Early  in  the  six- 
teenth century,  at  Fernando's  request,  he  was  made 
a  cardinal  by  Pope  Julius  II.,  and  on  Deza's  retire- 
ment he  became,  as  we  have  seen,  inquisitor-general. 
No  other  ecclesiastic  wielded  such  powers.  His 
ambition  grew  with  his  dignity.  In  1508  he  made 
an  offer  of  conducting  an  expedition  at  his  own  cost 
and  in  his  own  person  against  Oran,  on  the  African 
coast.  His  expedition  was  successful,  and  leaving 
a  lieutenant  to  complete  the  military  work,  he  returned 
to  Spain.  Here  he  occupied  himself  with  measures 
more  suitable  for  an  archbishop.  He  had  long  pro- 
posed to  establish  a  new  university  at  Alcala.  In 
1508  he  completed  the  erection  of  the  necessary 
building.  Out  of  the  enormous  revenues  which  he 
received  from  the  richest  See  in  Christendom  and 
his  other  ecclesiastical  posts  he  was  able  to  endow 
the  university  liberally.  Forty-two  professors  or 
lecturers  were  appointed,  and  at  the  end  of  twenty 
years  there  were  as  many  as  7000  members.-^  About 
the  same  time  he  occupied  himself  with  the  great 
undertaking  of  the  Complutensian  Polyglot,  by  which 
Ximenes  has  for  ever  earned  a  first  place  among 
Biblical  critics.  It  consisted  of  six  volumes  folio,  and 
its  compilation  occupied  fifteen  years.  In  all  respects 
it  is  an  astonishing  performance.  That  a  Spanish 
archbishop  and  a  Roman  cardinal  and  an  inquisitor 
should  have  been  the  first  to  conceive  the  idea  of 
a  critical   edition   of  the   Holy  Scriptures   appears  to 

^  We  cannot  forget  that  it  was  the   founder  of  the  University  of 
Alcala  that  burnt  2000  Arabic  MSS.  at  Granada. 


CARDINAL  XIMBNES  DB  CISNEROS.  377 

be  altogether  out  of  place.  We  know  that  Ximenes 
objected  to  the  use  of  the  Bible  for  the  conversion 
of  the  Moors,  and  it  was  probably  the  good  of  his 
university  that  he  was  specially  contemplating  when 
he  commenced  the  gigantic  undertaking.  Another 
work  highly  becoming  his  archiepiscopal  office  was 
his  edition  of  the  Mozarabic  Liturgy  and  the  establish- 
ment of  a  chapel  in  the  Cathedral  of  Toledo  where 
it  could  be  used.  Laudable  as  this  act  was,  it  would 
have  been  still  more  praiseworthy  had  his  scholar's 
instincts,  overcoming  those  of  the  theologian,  allowed 
him  simply  to  reproduce  the  old  office  instead  of 
adapting  it,  in  its  doctrine  and  in  its  contents,  to 
the  Breviary  and  Missals  of  the  Church  of  his 
own  day. 

The  death  of  Fernando  brought  Ximenes  once 
more  to  the  front  in  politics.  He  was  appointed 
regent  until  the  arrival  of  Fernando's  grandson, 
Charles  V.,  and,  old  as  he  was,  he  exhibited  his 
accustomed  vigour  in  that  capacity.  In  15 17  Charles 
took  upon  himself  the  government  of  the  kingdom, 
and  coldly  told  the  regent  that  he  might  retire  to  his 
diocese.  Ximenes'  death  followed  so  closely  after 
this  letter  that  it  has  been  usual  to  regard  the  shock 
caused  by  its  receipt  as  in  part  the  cause  of  the  old 
statesman's  death. 

Ximenes  was  the  third  of  the  great  bishops  which 
Spain  has  produced.  The  first  was  Hosius  of  Cor- 
dova, the  contemporary  of  Constantine ;  the  second, 
Isidore  of  Seville,  under  the  Gothic  monarchy ; 
Ximenes  makes  the  third.  They  all  lived  in  Spain, 
but  they  are  the  representatives  of  three  Churches, 


378        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

the  primitive  Spanish  Church,  the  Gothic  Spani&h 
Church,  and  the  modern  Spanish  Church,  each  of 
which  is  connected  by  certain  hnks  with  the  other, 
but  they  can  hardly  be  regarded  as  different  forms 
of  one  National  Church.  The  primitive  Spanish 
Church  did  indeed  run  into  the  Gothic  Church,  and 
after  a  time  the  old  believers  absorbed  the  new 
Gothic  element  into  themselves.  But  in  the  eleventh 
century  that  old  Church  died  out  in  Mozarabic  de- 
cadence, and  a  new  Church,  with  a  new  centre  and 
new  doctrines  and  new  methods  of  discipline,  was 
introduced  by  the  sovereigns  of  Leon,  Castile,  and 
Aragon.  It  was  of  this  last  Church  that  Ximenes 
was  the  glory.  He  had  high  qualities,  noble  aspira- 
tions, intense  self-sacrifice,  and  yet  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  he  did  not  do  more  harm  by  his  supposed 
virtues  to  his  Church  and  country  than  Carillo  by 
his  political  turbulence  or  Mendoza  by  his  laxity  of 
morals.  The  effects  of  the  example  of  Carillo  and 
Mendoza  might  quickly  pass,  but  to  Ximenes  Spain 
owed  the  expulsion  of  the  Moriscos,  the  retention  of 
the  Inquisition,  and  the  extension  to  the  New  World 
of  that  terrible  institution.  Can  any  benefits  derived 
from  asceticism,  which  was  only  personal,  from  refor- 
mation of  monastic  corruption,  which  soon  reverted 
to  its  pristine  laxity,  from  the  institution  of  a 
university  in  rivalry  of  the  already  existing  University 
of  Salamanca,  or  even  from  the  advance  in  Biblical 
criticism  promoted  by  the  Complutensian  Polyglot, 
make  up  for  the  horrors  which  the  Spanish  Inquisi- 
tion has  inflicted  on  the  Spanish  nation  and  Christen- 


CARDINAL  XIMENES  DE  CtSNEROS.  379 

dom    in    Europe,  Africa,   India,   South   America,   and 
the  Spanish  West  Indies  ?  ^ 

^  "  Le  jour  ou  dans  I'ordre  politique,  la  royaute,  avec  I'aide  de  I'in- 
quisition,  a  tout  absorbe,  tout  ecrase  ;  le  jour  ou  I'Eglise  victorieuse 
a  voulu  abuser  de  la  victoire ;  excluire  et  proscrire  d'abord  les  Juifs, 
puis  les  Maures,  puis  les  Protestants ;  puis  toute  discussion,  tout  exa- 
men,  toute  recherche,  toute  initiative,  toute  liberty  ;  ce  jour-lk  tout  a 
ete  perdu"  (Montalembert,  VEspagne  et  la  LiberU). 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

THE  LATER  INQUISITION. 

The  Inquisition  appeared  to  have  been  successful  in 
suppressing  Judaism  and  Mohammedanism  in  Spain. 
Might  it  not  now  die  out  for  lack  of  further  material 
on  which  to  act  ?  Twice  Charles  V.,  being  a  German, 
not  a  Spaniard,  was  on  the  point  of  abolishing  it. 
The  first  time  he  was  restrained  by  Ximenes ;  the 
second  time  by  Adrian,  afterwards  Pope  Adrian  VI., 
who  succeeded  Ximenes  as  the  fourth  inquisitor- 
general  of  Spain.  The  argument  by  which  Charles 
was  finally  won  over  to  be  a  strenuous  supporter  of 
the  institution  was  this.  New  opinions  were  spring- 
ing up  within  the  Church  which  Charles  detested, 
and  Adrian  made  him  understand  that  the  most  effi- 
cient instrument  for  crushing  these  opinions  was  the 
Inquisition.  Castile,  Aragon,  Catalonia,  the  whole  of 
Spain,  in  vain  petitioned  for  such  reforms  in  its  pro- 
ceedings as  would  enable  its  victims  to  know  what 
the  charges  made  against  them  were  and  to  obtain 
justice.  The  Pope,  the  king,  and  the  inquisitor- 
general,  the  three  powers  which  ruled  Spain,  re- 
solved on  increasing,  not  curtailing,  its  powers,  that 
it  might  resist  the  Reformation  which  was  now  loom- 
ing large    before   them.      The  first  care  of  the  new 

inquisitor,  Cardinal  Manrique,  who  succeeded  Adrian 

380 


THE  LATER  INQUISITION.  381 

as  inquisitor-general,  was  to  keep  any  books  out  of 
the  Peninsula  which  might  be  regarded  as  favourable 
to  the  views  of  Luther.  Erasmus'  writings  were 
condemned,  and  a  long  list  of  prohibited  books  was 
made  out.  No  book  was  to  be  admitted  into  Spain 
or  into  the  New  World  except  it  were  approved  by 
authority.  Paul  III.,  who  became  Pope  in  1534, 
forbade  even  archbishops  and  bishops  to  read  books 
suspected  of  heresy,  and  in  1558  Philip  II.  denounced 
death  and  confiscation  of  goods  on  any  one  who  sold, 
bought,  or  kept  any  books  prohibited  by  the  Holy 
Office. 

The  first  professed  Protestant  in  Spain  was  Rodrigo 
de  Valero.  He  had  been  an  idle  young  man,  loung- 
ing away  his  time  at  Seville  in  the  fashionable  world, 
when  he  suddenly  gave  himself  up  to  the  study  of 
the  Bible  and  a  life  of  religion.  But  he  did  not 
become  devout  in  the  orthodox  Spanish  manner. 
He  worked  out  for  himself  a  system  similar  to  that 
of  Luther,  and  regardless  of  his  life,  began  to  propa- 
gate it  amongst  his  countrymen.  At  first  men  said 
that  he  must  be  mad,  but  this  supposition  did  not 
long  save  him  from  the  Inquisition.  He  was  sum- 
moned before  the  tribunal,  and  all  his  goods  were 
confiscated.  He  was  again  summoned,  and  was  con- 
fined in  a  monastery  for  life,  where  he  might  see  no 
one  outside  the  walls  of  the  convent.  Here  he  died 
at  the  age  of  fifty.  Before  his  imprisonment  he  had 
been  brought  much  into  contact  with  Dr.  Juan  Gil 
or  Egidius,  preacher  at  the  Cathedral  of  Seville.  It 
had  been  noted  that  after  Valero's  intimacy  with 
him,  Egidius's  sermons  had  changed  their  character, 


3S2        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN 

and  he  had  become  the  most  popular  preacher  in 
Seville.  He  gathered  round  him  a  school  of  followers, 
amongst  whom  were  Constantine  Ponce  de  la  Fuente, 
and  Dr.  Vargas.  Suspicion  was  not  yet  aroused, 
and  Charles  V.  nominated  Egidius  for  the  Bishopric 
of  Tortosa.  This  led  to  a  closer  examination  into 
his  doctrine,  and  he  was  denounced  to  the  Inquisi- 
tion of  Seville  as  heretical  on  justification,  purga- 
tory, auricular  confession,  worship  of  images  and 
relics,  and  the  invocation  of  saints,  and  on  these 
charges  he  was  consigned  to  the  secret  prisons  of 
the  Holy  Office,  though  the  Emperor  and  the  Chapter 
of  Seville  wrote  in  his  favour.  Egidius  proposed  a 
conference  between  himself  and  an  orthodox  theo- 
logian. Soto,  a  Salamanca  doctor,  was  selected  for 
this  purpose.  The  two  theologians  came  to  a  perfect 
agreement,  and  they  arranged  each  to  write  their 
views  and  read  them  in  public  to  show  their  identity. 
A  conference  was  called  by  the  inquisitors  for  this 
purpose  in  the  Cathedral  of  Seville,  which  was  filled 
by  a  vast  crowd ;  but  Soto,  instead  of  expressing  the 
views  that  had  been  agreed  upon,  made  a  profession 
of  faith  of  a  quite  different  character.  Egidius  was 
condemned,  on  suspicion  of  being  a  Lutheran,  to  three 
years'  imprisonment,  and  he  was  forbidden  to  preach 
or  expound  theology  for  ten  years.  He  survived  his 
imprisonment  only  one  year.  Four  years  after  his 
death  he  was  declared  a  heretic,  and  it  was  ordered 
that  his  body  should  be  exhumed  and  burnt  and 
his  goods  confiscated.  Egidius  lived  long  enough  to 
constitute  a  Protestant  Church  in  Seville  which  in  a 
short  time  embraced  eight  hundred  members. 


THE  LATER  INQUISITION.  3S3 

The  condemnation  of  Egidius  had  the  same  effect 
on  the  Protestants  of  Seville  as  S.  Stephen's  martyr- 
dom on  the  first  Christians.  Many  of  his  associates 
were  scattered  abroad.  Among  these  were  Cassio- 
dorus  de  Reina,  Juan  Perez  de  Pineda,  and  Cyprian  de 
Valera.  These  men,  having  got  into  a  place  of  safety, 
occupied  themselves  with  preparing  tracts  and  books 
suitable  for  propagating  their  faith  in  Spain.  Another 
of  the  company,  Julian  Hernandez,  ingeniously  con- 
trived to  introduce  them  into  the  country  by  packing 
them  in  a  small  barrel  contained  in  a  larger  one,  the 
space  between  the  two  barrels'  sides  being  filled  with 
wine.  The  man  who  took  the  place  of  Egidius  as 
leader  was  Constantine  Ponce  de  la  Fuente,  who  with 
Dr.  Vargas  had  been  a  fellow-student  with  Egidius 
at  Alcala.  Vargas  died  early.  Constantine  was  ap- 
pointed almoner  and  preacher  to  Charles  V.,  and  was 
ordered  to  accompany  the  emperor  into  Germany. 
He  returned  to  Seville  a  little  before  Egidius'  death, 
and  was  elected  canon  of  Seville.  He  became  popu- 
lar as  a  preacher,  but  meantime  his  name  had  been 
given  to  the  inquisitors  as  suspected  of  Lutheranism 
by  several  prisoners  when  put  to  the  torture.^      Con- 

^  The  tortures  by  means  of  rack  and  pulley  are  sufficiently  known. 
Some  forms  used  in  the  Inquisition  were  of  a  rarer  character.  The 
following  is  Baker's  description  of  one  of  them,  taken  from  the  account 
of  the  Secretary  to  the  Inquisition  (Llorente,  xiv.  20)  : — "There  is  a 
wooden  bench,  which  they  call  the  wooden  horse,  made  hollow  like 
a  trough,  so  as  to  contain  a  man  lying  on  his  back  at  full  length 
about  the  middle  of  which  there  is  a  round  bar  laid  across,  upon 
which  the  back  of  the  person  is  placed,  so  that  he  lies  upon  the  bar, 
instead  of  being  let  (down)  into  the  bottom  of  the  trough,  and  with  his 
feet  much  higher  than  his  head.  As  he  is  lying  in  this  posture,  his 
arms,  thighs,  and  shins  are  tied  round  with  small  cords  or  strings, 
which,  being  drawn  with  screws  at  proper  distances  from  each  othen 


384        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

stantine  was  preparing  his  defence,  when  an  unhappy 
chance  delivered  him  into  the  hands  of  his  enemies. 
He  had  written  books  of  a  Protestant  character,  and 
for  the  sake  of  safety  he  had  entrusted  these  to  a 
Protestant  lady,  and  she  had  concealed  them  in  her 
cellar,  where  they  were  securely  walled  up.  The 
lady  was  arrested  on  a  charge  of  Lutheranism,  and 
her  goods  sequestered.  The  inquisitors,  believing 
that  some  valuable  effects  had  not  been  delivered  up, 
sent  an  officer  to  demand  them.  The  lady's  son, 
struck  with  terror  at  the  appearance  of  the  officer, 
immediately  made  a  declaration  of  the  existence  of 
the  concealed  books,  and  taking  down  part  of  the 
wall,  handed  them  to  the  officer,  who  carried  them  to 
the  Holy  Office.  Constantine's  books  dealt  with  the 
subjects  of  the  Church,  the  Eucharist,  the  sacrifice  of 
the  Mass,  justification,  purgatory,  indulgences,  merit, 
auricular  confession.  It  was  all  over  with  him.  The 
Inquisitors  did  not  even  think  it  worth  while  to  put 
him  to  the  torture.  They  threw  him  into  a  dark  and 
dripping  underground  cell  full  of  foul  air  and  accumu- 
lating filth  that  was  never  removed.  Accustomed  as 
he  had  been  to  living  as  a  gentleman  at  the  emperor's 

cut  into  tlie  very  bones,  so  as  to  be  no  longer  discerned.  Besides  this, 
tlie  torturer  throws  over  his  mouth  and  nostrils  a  thin  cloth,  so  that  he 
is  scarce  able  to  breathe  through  them,  and  in  the  meanwhile  a  small 
stream  of  water  like  a  thread,  not  drop  by  drop,  falls  from  on  high 
upon  the  mouth  of  the  person  lying  in  this  miserable  condition,  and  so 
easily  sinks  down  the  thin  cloth  to  the  bottom  of  his  throat,  so  that 
there  is  no  possibility  of  breathing,  his  mouth  being  stopped  witli 
water  and  his  nostrils  with  the  cloth,  so  that  the  poor  wretch  is  in 
the  same  agony  as  persons  ready  to  die  and  breathing  out  their  last. 
Wlieu  this  cloth  is  drawn  out  of  his  throat,  as  it  often  is,  that  he  may 
answer  to  the  questions,  it  is  all  wet  with  water  and  blood,  and  is  like 
pulling  his  bowels  through  his  mouth." 


THE  LATER  INQUISITION.  385 

court,  he  was  horrified  at  the  den  to  which  he  was 
consigned.  *'  O  my  God  !  "  he  cried,  ^'  were  there  no 
Scythians  or  cannibals,  or  men  more  cruel  still,  into 
whose  hands  I  might  have  been  delivered,  before 
permitting  me  to  fall  into  the  power  of  these  bar- 
barians ?  "  Such  an  imprisonment  could  have  but 
one  result.  Constantine  soon  perished.  At  the 
next  auto-da-fe  ^  a  figure  was  exhibited  with  arms 
stretched  out  in  the  attitude  which  Constantine  used 
when  preaching,  dressed  in  priestly  robes ;  he  was 
condemned  for  heresy,  and  his  bones  were  burnt. 

It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  any  of  the  Protes- 
tant leaders  in  Seville  would  escape,  for  the  three 
lords  of  Spain,  Pope  Paul  IV.,  King  Philip  II.,  and 
the  Inquisitor-General  Valdes,  had  determined  on 
stamping  out  the  sect.  The  Pope  ordered  by  his 
Bull  that  all  Lutherans  should  be  handed  over  for 
execution,  whether  relapsed  or  not,  whether  profess- 
ing repentance  or  not.  He  ordered  all  confessors 
to  refuse  absolution  to  any  who  did  not  denounce  to 
the  Holy  Office  the  existence  of  any  Lutheran  books 
of  which  they  had  knowledge,  and  the  confessors 
themselves  were  to  be  excommunicated  if  they  were 
not  urgent  on  the  point.  Philip  renewed  the  ancient 
law  that  the  informer  (whose  name  was  always 
kept  concealed)  should  receive  the  fourth  part  of 
the  goods  of  the  person  condemned.  The  number 
of  informations  thus  brought  about  was  enormous. 
Valdes  had  to  send  a  special  delegate  to  Seville,  and 
another  to  Valladolid,  to   receive  them.      A  singular 

1  Literally,  an  act  of  faith.     It  is  usual  to  call  it  by  its  Portuguese 
title  a.\i\.o-da-ie,  instead  of  the  Spanish  ^u{o-(/e-(6. 


386        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

circumstance  gave  to  the  inquisitors  a  full  knowledge 
of  the  names  of  their  victims  at  Seville.  Francisco 
de  Zafra  was  incumbent  of  the  parish  of  S.  Vincent 
in  that  city,  and  he  was  in  secret  a  Protestant,  and 
had  received  into  his  house  a  lady  holding  the  same 
sentiments  as  himself.  In  the  terrible  excitement  of 
the  time,  she  went  out  of  her  mind,  ran  to  the  Holy 
Office,  and  denounced  her  co-religionists.  The  in- 
quisitors hesitated  to  accept  her  evidence,  as  she  was 
plainly  mad.  They  had  as  yet  no  suspicion  respecting 
Zafra,  and  they  accepted  for  the  moment  his  repre- 
sentation that  the  stories  which  the  poor  lady  had 
told  were  the  result  of  a  disordered  imagination. 
Nevertheless,  they  kept  an  eye  on  those  whose  names 
had  thus  been  betrayed  to  them,  and  when  the  time 
for  the  next  auto-da-fe  at  Seville  came  near,  they 
swept  them  all  into  their  prisons.  The  poor  lady, 
having  recovered  her  mind,  returned  to  her  former 
faith  and  her  former  companions,  and  a  few  years 
later  she  died  at  the  stake  with  her  sister  and  her 
three  daughters.-^ 

Seville  required  two  autos-da-fe  to  burn  Protes- 
tantism out  of  it.  They  were  held  in  the  years  1559 
and  1560  by  Valdes'  delegate,  the  Bishop  of  Tarra- 
gona, three  other  bishops,  and  the  inquisitors  of  the 
district ;    the  judges,   the    cathedral   chaplain,   and   a 

^  The  manner  in  which  evidence  was  obtained  against  these  unhappy 
women  was  the  following  : — Torture  having  no  effect  upon  them,  the 
inquisitor  took  one  of  the  girls  apart,  assured  her  of  his  affection  for 
her,  and  promised  to  save  her  mother  and  sisters  if  she  would  make 
confession  to  him.  No  sooner  had  she  done  so  than  he  made  her 
repeat  her  confession  in  public,  and  the  five  women  were  burnt 
together. 


THE  LATER  INQUISITION.  387 

number  of  grandees  and  court  ladies  being  present.^ 
At  the  first  auto-da-fe  twenty-one  victims  were  "  re- 
laxed/' that  is,  handed  over  to  the  secular  authority 
for  death,  and  eighty  were  condemned  to  other  pun- 
ishments. Zafra,  whose  name  has  been  just  men- 
tioned, had  escaped  in  the  confusion  arising  from  the 
capture  of  eight  hundred  suspected  persons,  and, 
therefore,  the  Holy  Office  was  only  able  to  burn  his 
effigy.  Among  those  actually  burnt  were  Isabel  de 
Baena,  who  had  lent  her  house  for  some  Protestant 
meetings;  Juan  Ponce  de  Leon,  cousin  of  the  Duke 
of  Arcos ;  Juan  Gonzalez,  a  priest  of  Seville,  together 
with  his  two  sisters.  The  sisters,  being  pressed  to 
conform,  replied  that  they  would  do  as  their  brother 
did.  The  gag  was  removed  from  Gonzalez'  mouth 
in  order  that  he  might  persuade  them  to  save  their 
lives.  Instead,  he  encouraged  them  to  be  constant, 
and  all  three  died  singing  the  ii6th  Psalm.  One  of 
the  best-known  figures  among  the  victims  was  that 
of  Garcia  de  Arias,  who  bore  the  name  of  Doctor 
White,  in  consequence  of  the  whiteness  of  his  hair. 
For  a  length  of  time  he  had  concealed  his  true  views, 
and   had  often   been   called  in   by   the   inquisitors  to 

^  A  description  of  the  ceremonies  of  an  auto-da-fi  will  be  found  in 
Prescott's  History  of  Philip  II.,  bk.  ii.  chap.  iii. ;  in  De  Castro's  Spattish 
Protestants,  chap.  vr. ;  in  M^Cuq's,  History  of  the  Reformation  in  Spain, 
chap.  vii.  p.  274.  A  very  exact  account  is  also  given  in  Histoire  de 
r Inquisition  de  Goa,  published  at  Amsterdam  in  1697  by  a  French- 
man who  himself  went  through  all  the  ceremonies,  except  that  of 
being  burnt,  in  the  Inquisition  of  Portuguese  India.  The  story  is 
illustrated  by  copperplates  representing  the  various  scenes,  sucli  as  the 
sermon,  the  processions,  and  the  burning  at  the  stake,  the  distinctions 
in  the  san-benito  dress,  &c.  Baker's  History  of  the  Inquisition,  printed 
in  1736,  contains  (p.  484)  a  particular  account  of  the  auto-dafe  oi  1680 
at  Madrid. 

2C 


3SS        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

give  his  opinion  on  books  of  a  Protestant  tendency. 
Belonging  to  the  Convent  of  S.  Isidore,  he  quietly 
spread  Protestant  doctrines  within  its  walls,  and 
as  long  as  he  was  able  to  deceive  the  inquisitors, 
he  condescended  to  extreme  dissimulation  elsewhere. 
As  soon  as  he  was  seized  he  threw  off  the  mask,  and 
died  bravely  at  the  stake  without  a  sign  of  distress. 
Two  other  monks  of  the  same  convent  perished  with 
him,  Christobal  d' Arellano  and  Juan  de  Leon.  The 
last  was  on  his  way  to  England,  where  Elizabeth  was 
now  on  the  throne,  when  he  was  seized  by  some 
spies  of  the  Inquisition  in  Zealand  as  he  was  on 
the  point  of  embarking.  The  officers  of  the  Inqui- 
sition put  him  in  irons,  gagged  him,  and  forced  a  sort 
of  iron  helmet  over  his  head  and  face,  and  in  this 
state  hurried  him  off  to  Seville.  At  the  stake  the 
gag  was  taken  out  of  his  mouth  to  see  if  he  would 
make  profession  of  the  Roman  Catholic  faith,  but 
he  preferred  the  fire.  A  medical  man,  named  Chris- 
tobal de  Losada,  a  disciple  of  Egidius,  suffered  the 
same  fate.  A  schoolmaster,  Fernando  de  S.  Juan, 
was  also  burnt  alive,  his  pupils  being  handed  over 
to  the  Jesuits.  Three  young  ladies  of  Seville  were 
also  burnt.  One  of  them,  being  very  young,  was  told 
that  her  life  should  be  given  her  if  she  would  recite 
the  Creed.  She  did  so,  but  added  to  it  a  Protestant 
commentary  on  the  article,  "The  Holy  Catholic 
Church,"  on  which  she  was  at  once  garotted  and  her 
body  burnt. 

The  second  auto-da-fe  took  place  the  year  follow- 
ing. Fourteen  were  burnt  at  the  stake,  three  in 
effigy,  and   thirty-four  otherwise    sentenced.      It  was 


THE  LATER  INQUISITION.  389 

now  that  the  figures  and  bones  of  Egidius  and  Con- 
stantine  were  burnt,  and  together  with  them  the  figure 
of  Juan  Perez  de  Pineda,  who  had  contrived  to  escape. 
Hernandez,  who  had  succeeded  in  introducing  so 
many  books  into  Spain,  was  burnt.  An  EngHshman 
named  Burton,  who  had  come  to  Spain  on  business 
and  let  his  tongue  wag  too  freely,  was  seized  and 
burnt,  and  a  British  sailor  named  Brook,  and  a 
Frenchman  from  Bayonne.  Hearing  of  Burton's 
arrest,  a  Bristol  merchant  hastened  to  Seville  to  see 
if  he  could  save  Burton  and  recover  the  goods  with 
which  he  had  been  entrusted.  The  result  was, 
that  he  was  himself  seized  as  a  Protestant,  con- 
demned to  lose  his  goods  and  to  wear  the  san- 
benito  habit  for  a  year.  A  Dutchman  was  com- 
mitted to  prison  for  an  indefinite  time  at  the  pleasure 
of  the  inquisitors  for  having  said  that  he  thought 
that  his  wife's  conduct  would  serve  as  a  sufficient 
purgatory  for  him.  Such  a  statement  was  deroga- 
tory to  one  of  the  dogmas  of  the  Church.  Juana 
Bohorques,  sister  of  one  of  the  ladies  burnt  last 
year,  had  been  thrown  into  prison  owing  to  her 
sister's  confession.  She  was  delivered  of  a  child  in 
prison,  which  was  taken  from  her  at  the  end  of  eight 
days.  Happily  for  her  there  was  a  young  Protestant 
girl  in  the  prison,  who  carefully  tended  her  in  her 
sickness.  A  few  weeks  later  this  girl  was  sum- 
moned to  the  torture-room,  and  returned  so  maimed 
that  Juana  had  now  to  nurse  her.  Scarcely  was  she 
beginning  to  get  better,  when  Juana  was  herself  sum- 
moned to  the  torture-chamber.  She  had  not  yet 
recovered  her  natural  strength,  and  the  result  of  the 


390        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

torture  was  to  burst  some  internal  vessel.  She  re- 
turned to  the  cell  to  die.  Her  companion  was  shortly 
afterwards  committed  to  the  flames.-^ 

Protestantism  organised  itself  in  Valladolid  about 
the  same  time  as  at  Seville.  The  primary  instru- 
ment in  introducing  it  was  a  native  of  Burgos,  named 
Francisco  San-Roman,  who  had  gone  to  Antwerp  and 
Bremen  on  mercantile  business,  and  there  embraced 
Protestantism.  Having  written  letters  home  respect- 
ing his  change  of  faith,  he  was  seized  on  his  return 
and  thrown  into  prison.  On  his  release  he  made 
his  way  to  Ratisbon  and  besought  Charles  V.  to 
restrain  the  cruelty  of  the  inquisitors  and  admit  the 
doctrines  of  the  Reformation.  The  emperor  ordered 
him  into  confinement,  and  delivered  him  over  to  the 
Inquisition  of  Valladolid.  Refusing  to  recant,  he 
was  brought  to  the  stake  in  the  year  1544.  After 
the  faggots  had  been  lighted  he  was  pulled  out  of 
the  fire  in  hopes  of  drawing  from  him  an  acknow- 
ledgment of  his  errors.  "  Did  you  envy  my  happi- 
ness ?  "  said  he  to  the  friars  surrounding  him,  where- 
upon he  was  at  once  thrust  back  into  the  flames.  The 
first  Protestant  minister  of  Valladolid  was  Dominic 
de   Roxas,  son   of  the  Marquis  de  Posa  and   a  pupil 

1  At  the  time  that  the  Protestants  were  burnt  at  Seville  the  moral 
life  of  the  priests  was  so  bad  that,  the  Inquisition  having  decreed  that 
every  woman  who  had  been  tempted  to  sin  in  the  confessional  should 
denounce  the  author  of  the  temptation  to  the  Holy  Office,  so  many 
denunciations  were  made  that  it  was  found  necessary  to  hush  up  the 
matter  (Valera,  Tratado  de  los  Papas;  De  Castro,  Spanish  Protestants^ 
ch.  xxiv.  ;  Montanus,  Inquisitionis  Ilistania  Artes,  p.  184).  Paul  IV. 
issued  the  first  Bull  commanding  these  denunciations  in  1561,  addressed 
to  the  Inquisitor  Valdes,  and  many  other  Popes  found  it  necessary  to 
follow  his  example. 


THE  LATER  INQUISITION.  391 

of  Archbishop  Carranza.  For  some  time  he  was 
unmolested,  though  watched  by  the  spies  of  the  In- 
quisition. In  1558  he  disguised  himself  as  a  layman 
and  attempted  to  escape,  but  he  was  seized  and 
thrown  into  the  prison  of  the  Holy  Office  of  Valla- 
dolid.  When  brought  into  the  torture-chamber  he 
prayed  for  death,  and  was  told  that  he  should  have 
his  life  if  he  would  reveal  the  names  of  his  associates. 
He  yielded  through  present  terror,  but  afterwards 
denied  his  words.  At  the  stake  he  turned  to  Philip 
II.  and  cried  out  that  he  was  about  to  die  for  the 
defence  of  the  true  faith  of  the  Gospel,  which  was 
that  of  Luther.  Philip  ordered  him  to  be  gagged, 
and  in  that  state  he  died. 

The  ablest  leader  of  the  Protestants  in  Valladolid 
was  Augustin  Cazalla.  He  too  had  been  a  pupil  of 
Carranza' s,  was  a  canon  of  Salamanca,  and  preacher 
to  the  emperor.  Urged  by  Roxas,  he  took  up  his 
residence  in  Valladolid,  and  the  house  of  his  mother, 
Leonora  de  Vibero,  became  the  Protestants'  place  of 
meeting  for  worship.  In  1558  he  was  seized  and 
threatened  with  the  torture.  He  acknowledged  him- 
self a  Lutheran,  but  denied  that  he  had  exercised 
proselytism.  Up  to  the  eve  of  the  auto-da-fe  he  was 
led  to  believe  that  his  life  would  be  spared.  Being 
told  that  his  plea  was  insufficient,  ''  Then,"  said  he, 
'*  I  must  prepare  for  death,  for  I  can  say  no  more." 
The  confessor  who  attended  him  declared  him  peni- 
tent, and  he  was  therefore  strangled  before  his  body 
was  given  to  be  burnt. 

There  were  two  autos-da-fe    celebrated    at  Valla- 
dolid  in   the  year    1559.      The  first   was  on   Trinity 


392        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

Sunday,  May  21,  in  the  presence  of  Juana,  regent 
in  the  absence  of  PhiHp  II.,  and  of  Prince  Carlos,  who 
occupied  seats  in  the  chief  plaza  of  Valladolid,  sur- 
rounded by  a  vast  crowd  of  the  highest-born  men 
and  women  of  Spain.  As  soon  as  all  had  taken  their 
positions,  the  sermon  customary  on  the  occasion  was 
preached  by  Melchior  Cano,  Bishop  of  the  Canaries ; 
after  which  the  chief  inquisitor  present,  placing  him- 
self before  Don  Carlos  and  Juana,  administered  to 
them  an  oath  to  defend  the  Inquisition  and  to  reveal 
to  it  anything  spoken,  to  any  person  whatsoever,  in 
its  depreciation  or  contrary  to  the  faith.  The  young 
prince  took  the  oath,  but  it  is  said  that  the  events 
of  that  day  inspired  in  him  a  mortal  hatred  of  the 
Inquisition,  which  was  afterwards  fatal,  not  to  the 
Inquisition,  but  to  himself.  In  the  present  auto-da-fe 
there  were  two  families  which  were  made  to  suffer 
most,  the  Cazallas  and  the  Roxas.  The  death  of 
Augustin  Cazalla  has  been  already  mentioned.  With 
him  were  burnt  his  brother  Francisco  and  his  sister 
Beatriz,  together  with  the  bones  of  his  mother, 
Leonora  de  Vibero.^  Leonora  had  died,  having 
received  the  Eucharist  and  Extreme  Unction,  and 
had  been  buried  as  a  good  Catholic,  but  some  of 
the  Protestants  had  confessed  under  torture  that  she 
had  allowed  Protestant  meetings  to  be  held  in  her 
house.  On  this  her  memory  was  declared  infamous, 
the  goods  she  had  left  were  confiscated,  her  corpse 
was  brought  to  the  burning-place  with  a  figure  of 
herself  dressed  in  a  san-benito  and  pasteboard  mitre  . 
and  thrown  into  the  fire.      Her  house  was  ordered  to 

^  Spanisli  wives  at  this  time  did  not  talce  tlieir  husbands'  names. 


THE  LATER  INQUISITION.  393 

be  razed  and  a  monument  of  her  crime  to  be  erected 
on  the  spot.  This  monument  stood  till  the  year 
1809.  The  three  Cazallas  who  were  burnt  were  her 
children.  Two  more  of  her  children,  a  son  and 
daughter,  brother  and  sister  of  Augustin,  were  con- 
demned to  perpetual  imprisonment,  confiscation  of 
goods,  and  the  infamy  of  wearing  the  san-benito  as 
long  as  they  lived.  Five  belonging  to  the  family  of 
Roxas  were  punished  in  like  manner  by  confiscation 
of  goods,  perpetual  imprisonment,  and  perpetual  san- 
benito.  A  goldsmith  named  Garcia  was  burnt.  He 
had  been  denounced  by  his  wife,  who  had  watched 
him  to  the  place  where  the  Protestants  met  for  wor- 
ship. In  return  for  her  service  she  received  an 
annuity  from  the  public  funds.  Another  man  burnt 
was  Herrezuelo,  a  lawyer.  He  and  his  wife  Leonora 
had  been  carried  off  at  the  same  time  to  the  prisons 
of  the  Inquisition,  and  they  met  at  the  stake. 
Leonora's  san-benito  had  no  figures  of  devils  upon  it ; 
by  that  Herrezuelo  saw  that  she  had  recanted,  and 
he  tossed  some  words  of  scorn  at  her  as  he  passed. 
Finding  that  her  husband  perished  while  she  was 
saved,  Leonora  refused  to  be  comforted,  and  a  few  years 
later  was  herself  burnt.  In  this  auto-da-fe  fourteen 
persons  were  burnt  and  sixteen  otherwise  condemned. 
The  second  auto-da-fe  of  Valladolid,  held  in  the 
autumn  of  the  same  year,  was  graced  by  the  presence 
of  King  Philip  IL,  who  brought  with  him  his  son 
Carlos  and  his  sister  Juana,  together  with  a  host  of 
grandees.  Philip,  without  any  of  the  reluctance  which 
Carlos  had  felt,  took  the  oath  administered  to  him, 
and  drew  his  sword  to  show  that  he  was  the  defender 


394        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

of  the  Inquisition.  At  this  atifo-cia-/e  another  Cazalla, 
brother  of  Aiigustin,  and  another  Roxas  were  burnt. 
The  most  important  victim  was  Carlos  de  Seso,  a 
Veronese  by  birth,  who  had  married  a  Castilian  wife. 
For  fifteen  months  he  had  been  in  the  prisons  of  the 
Inquisition,  and  the  day  before  his  execution  he  had 
consigned  to  paper  the  statement  of  his  faith,  which 
was  pronounced  by  the  Inquisition  unsatisfactory.  As 
he  passed  Philip's  seat  on  the  day  of  the  auto-da-fe^ 
he  turned  to  him  and  said,  ''  Is  it  thus  that  you  allow 
your  innocent  subjects  to  be  persecuted  ?  "  ''If  my 
own  son,"  replied  Philip  sternly,  "were  in  like  case, 
I  would  fetch  the  wood  to  burn  him  " — words  which 
were  remembered  at  the  time  of  the  mysterious  and 
tragical  fate  of  Don  Carlos.  On  this  occasion  thirteen 
persons  were  "  relaxed,"  that  is,  delivered  to  the 
flames,  and  sixteen  "  reconciled,"  that  is,  condemned 
to  degradation  and  other  punishments. 

The  Inquisition  had  not  yet  brought  down  its 
noblest  quarry.  Bartolome  Carranza  was  a  man  of 
good  family,  and  began  life  as  a  Dominican  monk. 
Charles  V.  appointed  him  confessor  to  his  son  Philip, 
and  sent  him  to  the  Council  of  Trent.  He  accom- 
panied Philip  to  England,  and  was  active  in  the  per- 
secution of  the  English  Protestants.  On  Philip's 
nomination,  he  became  Archbishop  of  Toledo  in  1558. 
He  belonged  to  what  was  regarded  as  the  more 
moderate  school  among  the  Roman  Catholics,  the 
school  of  Pole  and  Contarini  rather  than  of  CarafFa. 
His  elevation  to  the  richest  See  in  Christendom  after 
that    of    Rome    sharpened    the    jealous    eyes    of    his 


THE  LATER  INQUISITION.  395 

enemies,  and  he  was  accused  to  the  Inquisition  as  a 
favourer  of  Lutheranism.  At  the  beginning  of  August 
1559  he  was  living  at  Alcala,  when  he  was  sum- 
moned to  Valladolid  by  the  Regent  Juana.  He  set 
off  on  his  journey,  ridiculing  the  idea  that  any  one 
should  venture  to  arrest  him  who  had  been  instru- 
mental in  the  conversion  of  two  millions  of  heretics 
and  was  the  second  prelate  of  Europe,  subject  to  no 
one  but  the  Pope.  On  August  20  he  reached  Tor- 
delaguna,  and  Don  Rodrigo  de  Castro,  the  regent's 
messenger,  supped  with  him.  At  midnight,  after  the 
archbishop  had  retired  to  rest,  Diego  Ramirez,  the 
inquisitor-general  of  Toledo,  summoning  Rodrigo  to 
accompany  him,  knocked  at  the  door  of  the  arch- 
bishop's antechamber.  ''  Who  calls  ?  "  cried  the 
friar  who  was  occupying  the  chamber.  ''  Open  to  the 
Holy  Office,"  was  the  answer.  Immediately  the  door 
flew  open,  and  that  of  the  archbishop's  room  as  well, 
for  none  dared  resist  that  terrible  summons,  and 
Ramirez  and  Rodrigo  entered.  The  archbishop  raised 
himself  in  his  bed  and  demanded  the  cause  of  the 
intrusion.  Rodrigo  fell  on  his  knees,  and  with  tears 
in  his  eyes  declared  that  he  was  commanded  by  the 
Holy  Office  to  take  him  prisoner,  in  proof  of  which 
he  read  an  order  signed  by  Valdes,  inquisitor-general 
for  Spain.  The  archbishop  claimed  his  privilege  of 
being  subject  only  to  the  Pope.  Ramirez  drew  forth 
a  Papal  brief  authorising  his  arrest ;  the  archbishop 
submitted  and  yielded  himself  prisoner.  A  lawyer,  a 
friar,  and  a  priest  who,  one  after  the  other,  besought 
to  see  their  patron  were  dismissed  from  the  town 
under   a   penalty   of    10,000   ducats    fine   and   arrest 


396        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

unless  they  immediately  left  it.  None  but  Rodrigo 
and  Ramirez  were  permitted  to  attend  the  prisoner  at 
his  dinner-table.  All  the  household  was  dismissed. 
At  nine  o'clock  at  night  proclamation  was  made  that 
none  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  should  appear  in 
the  streets  or  at  their  windows  until  daylight.  At 
midnight  the  archbishop  was  made  to  mount  on  a 
mule,  and  to  proceed  towards  Valladolid,  Ramirez 
and  Rodrigo  on  each  side  of  him,  and  the  servants 
of  the  Inquisition  behind.  He  was  introduced  into 
Valladolid  with  the  same  secrecy  with  which  he  had 
left  Tordelaguna,  and  was  lodged  in  the  prisons  of 
the  Inquisition.  The  archbishop  refusing  to  be 
judged  by  Valdes,  who  was  his  ecclesiastical  inferior 
and  a  personal  enemy,  the  Pope  authorised  Philip  to 
nominate  another  judge ;  but  the  archbishop  did  not 
benefit  by  the  change.  He  lingered  for  seven  years 
in  prison,  to  the  scandal  of  the  Roman  Catholic  world, 
till  in  1566  Pius  V.  evoked  the  trial  to  Rome,  threaten- 
ing Philip  and  Valdes  with  excommunication  if  they 
disobeyed.  He  was  lodged  in  the  Castle  of  S.  Angelo, 
and  the  Pope  entered  on  the  examination  of  the  case. 
At  the  end  of  six  years  Pius  V.  died,  without  having 
pronounced  any  decision  in  public,  though  he  had 
forwarded  to  Philip  the  draft  of  an  acquittal,  which 
Philip  refused  to  accept.  Pius  V.  was  succeeded  by 
Gregory  XIII.,  who  delivered  sentence  in  1576.  Car- 
ranza  was  declared  to  have  derived  false  doctrine 
ffom  Luther,  OEcolampadius,  and  Melancthon.  The 
Catechism  which  he  had  published  was  condemned, 
and  he  was  obliged  to  abjure  sixteen  propositions 
that  were  pronounced  heretical.      He  was  suspended 


THE  LATER  INQUISITION.  397 

for  five  years,  was  confined  to  a  Dominican  convent 
at  Orvieto  for  the  same  period,  and  was  desired  to  do 
penance  by  visiting  the  seven  chief  churches  of  Rome. 
The  old  man  was  broken  by  his  eighteen  years'  im- 
prisonment, and  he  received  his  sentence  with  tears 
and  submission.  His  abjuration  took  place  on  Palm 
Sunday,  and  he  visited  the  seven  churches  in  Easter' 
week,  but  the  fatigue  and  grief  that  he  had  undergone 
killed  him ;  sixteen  days  after  his  sentence,  on  May  2, 
1576,  he  was  no  more. 

The  case  of  Carranza  proved  two  things  in  the 
eyes  of  all  Christendom.  The  fij;st,  that  no  moderate 
Roman  CathoHc,  although  he  had  exhibited  his  zeal 
by  the  persecution  of  Protestants,  was  safe  in  any 
land  where  the  Inquisition  was  dominant ;  the  second, 
that  the  Primate  of  Spain  was  only  a  cipher  as  com- 
pared with  the  Primate  of  Italy.  Julian,  Bishop  of 
Toledo  and  Primate  of  Spain,  stood  on  a  level  with 
the  Bishop  of  Rome  in  the  seventh  century,  and 
wrung  an  apology  from  him  when  he  ventured  to 
impugn  his  orthodoxy.  But  Bernard  accepted  from 
Urban  II.  in  the  eleventh  century  the  fatal  gift  of 
a  primacy  derived  from  Rome  instead  of  from  the  old 
Spanish  Church,  and  from  that  time  forward  no  primate 
of  Spain  could  stand  up  against  the  Roman  Prelates. 

Is  the  Inquisition  answerable  for  the  fate  of  another 
of  still  higher  rank  than  Archbishop  Carranza  ?  Pro- 
bably the  mystery  surrounding  the  tragical  death  of 
Don  Carlos,  Prince  of  the  Asturias,  will  never  be 
cleared  up.  It  has  been  seized  upon  by  poets  and 
romancers  as  a  theme  for  their  imagination,  and  facts 
have   been   concealed    through    the    fear   and    respect 


398        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

entertained  by  Spanish  historians  and  annalists  for 
Philip  II.  and  his  successors.  Don  Carlos  was,  no 
doubt,  a  youth  of  violent  and  uncontrolled  temper, 
and  no  love  ever  existed  between  the  father  and  the 
son.  When  he  was  fourteen  years  old  he  had 
been  engaged  by  treaty  with  France  to  marry  Isabel, 
but  Philip's  wife,  Mary  Tudor,  having  died  at  the 
critical  time,  Isabel  was  married  to  Philip  instead  of 
to  his  son.  We  have  no  indication  of  any  resentment 
being  felt  by  Carlos  at  the  loss  of  his  bride,  though 
such  a  thing  was  not  unlikely.  That  his  relation 
to  Isabel  had  anything  to  do  with  his  death  is  a 
conjecture  which  rests  on  no  foundation.  His  tem- 
per was  the  very  opposite  to  that  of  Philip.  Philip 
was  grave,  stern,  inflexible,  and  pitiless ;  Carlos  was 
violent  and  reckless.  The  two  men  could  not  live 
together  without  giving  offence  each  to  the  other, 
and  Carlos  offended  his  father's  ministers  with  no 
regard  to  consequences.  He  personally  assaulted 
the  Duke  of  Alva.  He  insulted  Cardinal  Espinosa, 
Philip's  prime  minister,  and  afterwards  grand-inquisi- 
tor. He  drew  his  sword  against  Don  John  of  Austria. 
On  the  other  hand,  he  made  friends  with  Count 
Egmont,  and  ventured  to  remonstrate  with  his  father 
for  attempting  to  introduce  the  Holy  Office  into  the 
Netherlands,  asking  to  be  himself  appointed  governor 
of  that  country.  As  his  son  grew  older,  Philip  looked 
upon  him  with  a  less  and  less  favourable  eye.  The 
toil  of  his  life  had  been  to  establish  a  permanent 
despotism,  spiritual  and  secular,  by  his  own  resolute 
will,  with  the  help  of  the  chief  inquisitor  and  the 
Pope.     Was  this  headstrong  boy  to  overthrow  all  his 


THE  LATER  INQUISITION.  399 

policy  as  soon  as  he  should  himself  have  passed 
away  ?  Carlos  hated  the  Inquisition,  detested  his 
father's  policy,  and  was  ready  to  put  himself  at  the 
head,  not,  indeed,  of  a  Protestant  party,  but  of  a 
party  of  toleration.  The  Duke  of  Alva  was  sent  to 
the  Low  Countries,  and  arrested  Egmont  and  Horn. 
Carlos  had  wished  to  go  there  and  carry  out  a  con- 
trary policy.  He  would  not  remain  at  his  father's 
court.  If  he  did  not  go  to  the  Netherlands,  he  would 
fly  to  Vienna  to  his  uncle  Maximilian,  or  to  Italy,  or 
anywhere,  and  he  began  collecting  money  for  the 
expenses  of  his  journey.  The  night  before  he  was 
going  to  set  out  Philip  entered  his  bedroom  in  full 
armour  accompanied  by  soldiers.  Carlos'  weapons 
were  seized  while  he  was  still  asleep,  and  he  himself 
was  delivered  over  as  a  prisoner  to  the  Duke  of 
Feria.  He  was  watched  day  and  night,  and  it  soon 
appeared  that  he  was  never  to  be  restored  to  liberty. 
The  end  came  before  long.  The  prince  was  said  to 
have  brought  about  his  own  death  by  using  ice  and 
snow  and  cold  water,  to  relieve  the  fever  from  which 
he  was  suffering,  and  by  carelessness  of  diet.  This 
was  what  was  said  aloud,  but  sotto-voce  his  death  was 
attributed  to  his  father.  A  Council  of  ministers  had 
declared  him  to  be  guilty  of  treason  which  the  king 
might  punish  or  pardon  as  he  chose.  Philip  had 
replied  that,  for  the  good  of  his  people,  he  must  let 
the  law  take  its  course,  unless,  indeed,  this  extremity 
might  be  avoided  by  allowing  the  prisoner  to  cause 
his  own    death    by    indulging  in    unwholesome   diet.^ 

1  This  is  in  the  spirit  of  the  Jesuit  Mariana's  teaching,  contained  in 
his  treatise  on  king-killing,  De  rege  et  regis  mstitulione,  i.  6. 


400        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

It  was  not  necessary  for  a  king  to  speak  more 
plainly.  Antonio  Perez  states  that  Carlos,  having 
been  condemned  to  death  by  casuists  and  inquisi- 
tors, died  by  administration  of  poison.^  Giustiniani, 
who  was  then  in  Spain,  told  De  Thou  that  Carlos 
was  adjudged  to  death,  and  that  poison  was  mixed  in 
his  broth.^  It  can  hardly  be  questioned  that  Carlos 
met  with  foul  play  ;  but  it  was  not  at  the  hands  of 
the  Inquisition,  but  of  the  Council  of  ministers 
which  advised  the  king  that  the  prince  had  incurred 
the  penalty  of  death,  at  the  head  of  which  Council 
sat  Cardinal  Espinosa.  There  is  an  antecedent  im- 
probability that  a  father  should  put  to  death  his 
son,  but  that  Philip  II.  should  put  to  death  a  son 
who  favoured  liberalism  in  politics  and  toleration 
in  religion  has  nothing  improbable  about  it.  He 
had  already  said  to  the  noble  Carlos  de  Seso,  who 
was  charged  with  Lutheranism,  "  I  would  fetch  the 
wood  to  burn  my  own  son  were  he  such  as  thou," 
and  the  enormous  number  of  executions  by  sword 
and  by  fire  that  he  had  caused  must  have  made 
him  callous  to  the  thought  of  inflicting  death  for 
opinions  which  he  counted  dangerous  to  the  State  or 
the  Church  ;  nor  should  we  expect  Philip's  conscience 
to  be  troubled,  even  had  it  still  been  tender,  at  carry- 
ing out  in  his  own  manner,  by  his  sovereign  will,  a 
sentence  which  he  would  have  regarded  not  only  as 
just  and  necessary,  but  also  as  legally  awarded  and 
approved  by  ecclesiastical  authority. 

^  Letter  of  Antonio  Perez,  quoted  in  Prescott's  Philip  II.,  book  iv. 
chap.  vii. 

^  De  Thou,  Histoire  Untverselle,  torn.  \'.  ;  quoted  by  Prescott. 


THE  LATER  INQUISITION.  401 

Whether  one  victim  more  or  less  died  at  the  hands 
of  the  Spanish  Inquisitors  can  make  no  alteration 
in  the  judgment  to  be  passed  on  the  institution  that 
they  administered.  By  its  agency,  from  1481  to  1798, 
there  perished  in  the  flames  32,000  persons,  there 
were  burnt  in  effigy  17,000,  and  296,000  were  de- 
graded, imprisoned,  stripped  of  their  goods,  ruined, 
and  subjected  to  pain  and  ignominy.  In  all  345,000 
human  beings  in  the  Peninsula  alone  suffered  at  its 
hands,  and  to  that  sum  of  misery  is  to  be  added  the 
further  sum  made  up  by  the  suffering  of  an  untold 
number  in  India,  South  America,  and  all  the  Spanish 
and  Portuguese  colonies.^ 

1  This  institution  the  Dominican  monk  Monsabre  defended  in  the 
year  1882,  in  the  pulpit  of  Notre  Dame,  as  "a  tribunal  of  legitimate 
surveillance  for  discussing  the  intrigues  of  an  enemy  that  conspired 
against  the  public  good  ;  a  tribunal  of  high  protection  for  society, 
which  was  menaced,  and  for  innocent  persons  falsely  accused  ;  a 
tribunal  of  equity  and  indulgence  for  the  guilty.  .  .  .  What  is  the  black 
injustice,"  cries  the  Dominican,  "  or  the  horrible  cruelty  that  you  see 
in  it  ?  "  {Confh'ence  sur  V Inqtiisition,  p.  19).  Monsabre  does  not  stand 
alone.  Menendez  y  Pelayo,  Professor  of  Spanish  Literature  at  the 
University  of  Madrid  and  author  of  Historia  de  los  Heterodoxos  Espa- 
Holes,  toasted  the  Inquisition  at  a  public  dinner  given  a  few  years  ago 
on  the  anniversary  of  Calderon's  death,  and  in  his  speech  declared 
that  "  Spain  must  be  for  ever  grateful  to  the  House  of  Austria  and 
the  House  of  Bourbon,  which  had  saved  her  from  German  barbarism  " 
(see  Field,  Old  and  New  Spain,  p.  250), 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

THE  JESUITS  IN  SPAIN. 

The  same  day  that  the  Catholic  kings,  Fernando  and 
Isabel,  entered  Granada  there  was  born,  in  the  pro- 
vince of  Guipuscoa,  Inigo  de  Loyola.  When  he  grew 
up  he  entered  the  army,  which  he  had  to  leave  on 
account  of  a  wound.  During  the  fever  which  fol- 
lowed this  wound  there  unrolled  itself  before  the 
imagination  of  the  young  enthusiast  the  prospect  of  a 
nobler  warfare  than  that  in  which  he  had  hitherto 
been  engaged,  and  of  a  more  spiritual  chivalry  than 
that  to  which,  as  a  young  Spanish  noble,  he  had 
been  addicted.  He  had  visions  of  S.  Mary,  who 
appeared  to  him  holding  the  infant  Jesus  in  her  arms. 
He  threw  himself  before  her  image  and  vowed  to  be 
her  knight,  and  to  consecrate  himself  to  her  service. 
As  a  Spaniard  the  constitution  of  the  military  orders 
was  familiar  to  him.  He  would  establish  a  band  of 
warriors  like  them,  but  instead  of  fighting  against 
Moors  in  behalf  of  earthly  kings,  they  should  fight 
against  the  enemies  of  the  Church  for  the  honour  of 
their  divine  lady.  He  went  through  all  those  combats 
with  the  devil  which  enthusiasts  have  to  fight,  and, 
like  most  originators  of  a  new  thing,  he  had  to  undergo 
persecutions  and  imprisonments  at  AlcaU  and  at  Sala- 
manca.    He  gathered  round  him  his  first  companions, 

402 


THE  JESUITS  IN  SPAIN.  403 

the  nucleus  of  the  famous  Company,  at  the  University 
of  Paris.  Lefevre  was  his  first  follower,  a  Savoyard  ; 
the  second,  Francisco  Xavier,  a  Spaniard.  Four  other 
young  -men  joined  them,  and  they  resolved  on  going 
to  Palestine  for  the  spiritual  conquest  of  that  country. 
They  appointed  a  rendezvous  at  Venice,  where  they 
met  after  Inigo  or  Ignatius  had  paid  a  short  visit 
to  his  native  country  of  Spain.  Arrived  in  Venice, 
they  found  that  the  state  of  politics  prevented  their 
proceeding  to  the  Holy  Land,  and  they  determined, 
therefore,  to  go  to  Rome  instead.  They  were  favour- 
ably received  by  Paul  III.,  and  in  1538  the  company 
had  grown  sufficiently  large  to  hold  a  formal  meeting, 
at  which  Ignatius  assured  them  that  they  were  knights 
called  by  God  to  the  spiritual  conquest  of  the  universe, 
and  that  they  must  be  enrolled  in  a  regiment  which 
should  last  to  the  end  of  the  world.  He  bade  them 
call  themselves  the  Company  of  Jesus,  for  God  had 
twice  told  him  that  that  was  to  be  their  name.  Paul 
III.,  being  asked  for  his  approval,  referred  the  ques- 
tion to  three  theologians,  whose  recommendation 
was  unfavourable  to  the  institution  of  the  company. 
Ignatius  is  said  by  Ribadeneira  to  have  promised 
God  three  thousand  Masses  if  He  would  make  them 
come  to  a  different  conclusion.  The  three  theologians 
changed  their  minds,  and  Paul  III.  issued  his  Bull  of 
approbation,  September  27,  1540,  in  favour  of  such  as 
would  carry  arms  for  God  under  the  standard  of  the 
Cross,  and  serve  the  Lord  and  the  Roman  Pontiff. 
It  was  understood  that  their  arms  were  chiefly  to  be 
directed  against  the  Protestants.  Ignatius  became 
the  first  general,  April  17,  1541,  and  in  his  oath  on 

2  D 


404        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

admission  he  promised  a  special  obedience  to  the 
sovereign  Pontiff.  The  first  prince  who  established 
Jesuits  in  his  realm  was  Joao  III.,  king  of  Portugal. 
Xavier  and  Rodriguez  had  already  been  sent  into 
Portugal,  and  from  thence  Xavier  had  proceeded  to 
Portuguese  India.  Rodriguez  founded  at  Coimbra 
the  first  Jesuit  college ;  another  sprang  up  at  Oporto. 
In  six  years  the  Company  was  spread  through  the 
kingdom.  The  means  that  they  adopted  for  attract- 
ing notice  were  often  sensational.  Rodriguez  formed 
processions  of  the  novices  in  the  streets,  carrying 
torches  and  deaths'-heads,  who  cried  out  as  they 
marched,  "  Hell,  hell  for  those  who  are  in  mortal 
sin  !  Earth,  earth,  come  and  hear  the  words  of  salva- 
tion." The  attention  of  the  masses  was  drawn  to 
them  by  these  proceedings,  while  at  the  same  time 
Rodriguez  induced  young  men  of  the  highest  birth 
to  join  their  ranks.  Rodriguez  became  tutor  in  the 
royal  family,  and  gained  an  entire  mastery  over  Joao's 
mind.  The  people  of  Coimbra,  Oporto,  and  Evora 
in  vain  petitioned  the  Court  against  the  new-comers. 
The  Archbishop  of  Evora,  who  was  brother  to  the 
king  and  grand-inquisitor  for  the  country,  built  a 
college  for  them  at  his  own  expense  at  Evora. 

In  1543  Maria,  daughter  of  Joao  III.  of  Portugal, 
became  the  first  wife  of  Philip  II.  of  Spain.  Joao 
sent  with  her  two  Jesuits,  one  of  whom  gained  to  the 
cause  of  the  Company  Francisco  de  Borgia,  Viceroy  of 
Catalonia  and  Duke  of  Gandia.  Under  the  patron- 
age of  Borgia  and  of  Cardinal  Mendoza  the  Jesuits 
spread  rapidly  through  Spain.  They  established 
colleges   at  Alcala,    Gandia,    Malaga,    Placentia,  Com- 


THE  JESUITS  IN  SPAIN.  405 

postela,  Oviedo,  Leon,  Granada,  Medina-del-Campo, 
Cordova,  Seville,  Burgos,  Avila,  Cuenga,  Simancas, 
Barcelona,  Murcia,  Monte- Regio,  Origiiello,  Ognato, 
and  Salamanca.  Proud  of  their  success,  and  already 
aiming  at  the  overthrow  of  national  authority,  the 
Jesuits  did  not  deign  to  ask  of  the  Archbishop  of 
Toledo  and  the  Spanish  bishops  sanction  for  their 
proceedings.  The  archbishop  interdicted  them,  and 
threatened  them  with  excommunication,  forbidding  all 
priests  in  his  diocese  the  use  of  Ignatius'  Spiritual 
Exercises,  and  prohibiting  any  one  at  Alcala  to  receive 
the  sacraments  at  their  hands.  Under  these  circum- 
stances the  Jesuit  author  of  the  Life  of  Ignatius  says 
that  their  first  step  was  "  to  propitiate  the  heavenly 
Deity,  as  their  custom  was,  by  a  voluntary  flogging 
of  their  bodies/'  and  the  next  to  try  to  win  over  the 
archbishop.  These  measures  not  succeeding,  Igna- 
tius desired  an  appeal  to  be  made  to  the  king,  while 
he  himself  petitioned  the  Pope.  The  Papal  and  the 
ro3^al  power  combined  was  too  great  for  the  arch- 
bishop. He  had  to  withdraw  his  opposition,  and  a 
house  which  he  had  built  himself  for  a  body  of 
clergy  of  different  views  was  assigned  on  his  death 
to  the  Jesuits. 

Matters  took  much  the  same  course  in  Aragon. 
Invited  thither  by  men  high  in  office,  the  Jesuits 
established  themselves  without  any  respect  to  the 
rights  of  jurisdiction  belonging  to  other  orders  and 
clergy.  They  built  a  church,  the  consecration  of 
which  the  grand-vicar  of  the  Archbishop  of  Zara- 
goza  forbade,  and  he  excommunicated  the  Company. 
The    Aragonese     took     side    with     the    grand-vicar 


4o6        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

against  the  new-comers.  Fearing  to  be  massacred, 
the  latter  fled  from  Zaragoza  and  appealed  to  their 
patrons,  who  threatened  the  archbishop  with  the 
king's  indignation  if  he  did  not  repudiate  his  grand- 
vicar's  act.  The  terrified  prelate  at  once  did  so,  and 
the  Jesuits  returned  in  triumph  to  Zaragoza. 

At  Salamanca,  Melchior  Cano,  professor  of  theology, 
declared  the  Jesuits  to  be  the  precursors  of  Antichrist, 
and  publicly  applied  to  them  S.  Paul's  words  in 
Timothy  iii.  By  Jesuit  intrigue  or  good  fortune  Cano 
was  removed  from  the  University  of  Salamanca  and 
sent  into  honourable  exile  as  Bishop  of  the  Canaries. 

Xavier  had  gone  to  Portuguese  India  in  the  year 
1 541.  Having  passed  the  winter  at  Mozambique,  he 
proceeded  to  Goa,  which  he  made  the  centre  of  his 
activity.  He  was  a  man  of  warm  heart  and  of  a 
simple  spirit,  but  the  reputation  which  he  enjoys  as 
a  missionary  and  propagator  of  Christianity  is  un- 
deserved. He  had  two  methods  of  bringing  about 
conversion.  One  was  to  make  a  progress  through 
the  streets  of  the  several  towns  which  he  visited, 
ringing  a  hand-bell,  which  soon  brought  the  children 
about  him.  His  first  lesson  to  them  was  to  make 
the  sign  of  the  cross,  which  the  children  did  with 
great  satisfaction ;  the  next  was  to  get  them  to  learn 
by  heart  the  PateVy  Ave,  Credo,  Confiteor,  and  the  Salve 
Regina,  which  was  probably  as  much  of  the  language 
as  he  knew  himself;  then  he  sent  them  away  and 
told  them  to  teach  their  parents  and  friends.  As 
soon  as  they  could  say  these  formulas  they  were 
baptized.  His  other  method  was  to  employ  his 
influence  with  the  Viceroy  de  Souza  and  his  authority 


THE  JESUITS  IN  SPAIN.  407 

with  the  Portuguese  soldiers  to  destroy  the  heathen 
temples  and  to  compel  the  idolaters  to  profess  them- 
selves Christians.  Having  thus  converted  a  country, 
he  went  elsewhere.  On  his  return  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  he  found  his  converts  as  much  heathen 
as  they  had  been  before  his  arrival.  What  was 
he  to  do  ?  We  may  smile  when  we  find  him 
making  his  friends,  the  children,  set  fire  to  the  houses 
of  the  renegades,  but  we  cannot  smile  when  we  find 
his  system  leading  the  way  to  the  establishment 
in  Goa  of  the  tribunal  of  the  Inquisition.  If  the 
Jews  and  Moors  had  not  been  compelled  by  force  to 
renounce  their  faith  Fernando  and  Isabel  would  not 
have  required  the  Inquisition  in  Spain,  and  if  Xavier 
had  really  converted  the  heathen  it  would  not  have 
been  found  necessary  to  call  in  the  same  hateful  in- 
strumentality in  India.  It  was  introduced  with  all 
its  formalities  and  rules.  Its  severity  was  as  great 
as  in  Portugal — even  greater,  perhaps,  than  in  Spain. 
In  the  Histoire  de  V Inquisition  de  GoQy  published  at 
Amsterdam  in  1697,  the  author  gives  an  account  of 
his  apprehension,  and  of  the  manner  in  which  he 
was  treated  in  the  prisons  of  the  Office  and  on  the 
day  of  the  auto-da-fe.  He  describes  the  fate  of  two 
natives  handed  over  on  that  occasion  by  the  Holy 
Office  to  the  secular  arm  to  be  burnt,  with  the  usual 
prayer,  that  ^'clemency  and  mercy  might  be  shown 
them,  and  that,  even  if  they  were  put  to  death,  their 
blood  should  not  be  shed."  With  them  were  burnt 
four  boxes  containing  the  bones  of  men  dead.  He 
was  himself  fortunate  enough  to  be  among  those 
condemned  to  punishment  less  than  death.      He  was 


4o8        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

taken  back  to  the  Inquisition,  made  to  promise  on 
his  knees  secrecy  as  to  all  that  occurred  within  the 
Holy  Office,  given  a  list  of  his  penances,  and  con- 
ducted in  irons  on  board  a  vessel  about  to  sail  for 
Portugal,  where  he  was  ordered  to  report  himself  at 
the  Inquisition  of  Lisbon.  Here  he  was  again  sent 
to  prison  and  chained  to  one  of  its  occupants.  He 
had  been  condemned  to  spend  five  years  as  a  convict 
in  this  prison,  but  after  a  time  he  was  granted  his 
liberty  on  condition  of  leaving  the  country. 

It  was  this  terrible  institution  that  Xavier's  system 
of  superficial  "  conversion "  led  up  to  in  India, 
although  it  was  not  actually  established  there  till  eight 
years  after  his  death.  Not  finding  sufficient  support 
from  De  Souza,  he  wrote  to  the  king  of  Portugal, 
begging  him  to  send  as  viceroy  ''a  vigilant  and 
courageous  man  whose  chief  interest  should  be  the 
conversion  of  souls,"  and  accordingly  Joao  de  Castro 
was  sent  out  with  orders  to  pull  down  the  pagodas, 
banish  the  heathen  priests,  protect  the  Christians, 
and  not  to  tolerate  any  superstition.  By  the  help  of 
this  viceroy  Xavier's  mission  was  to  some  extent  suc- 
cessful, but  it  required  the  Inquisition  to  maintain  its 
permanence.     It  was  accordingly  introduced  in  1560.-^ 

The  relations  of  Joao  III.  of  Portugal  with  Abys- 
sinia opened  that  country  to  the  Order  of  the  Jesuits. 
Ignatius  appointed  Baretto  to  head  a  mission   thither 

*  Besides  India  the  other  main  theatre  of  the  Inquisition,  outside  the 
Peninsula,  was  Central  and  South  America.  Here  there  were  three 
chief  tribunals  :  one  at  Mexico,  established  in  1570;  one  at  Lima,  in 
157 1  ;  and  one  at  Cartagena,  which  was  not  formally  instituted  till 
1610.  A  special  Inquisition  was  also  set  up  for  the  navy  and  aimy  in 
1571  by  a  Papal  brief  demanded  by  Philip  II. 


THE  JESUITS  IN  SPAIN.  409 

with  the  title  of  Patriarch  of  Ethiopia,  accompanied 
by  twelve  Jesuit  priests.  They  proceeded  to  Goa,  and 
thence  sent  one  of  their  number  to  Abyssinia  to  prepare 
the  way  for  them.  But  the  king  was  no  longer  willing 
to  receive  them,  and  sent  back  their  messenger.  A  priest 
named  Oviedo  bore  the  title  of  Patriarch  of  Ethiopia 
after  Baretto's  death,  but  no  success  attended  the  effort. 
Ignatius  died  in  1556  at  Rome.  His  order  con- 
tinued to  expand  in  his  native  country  of  Spain 
and  the  neighbouring  Portugal.  New  colleges  arose 
at  Ocana,  Montella,  Palencia,  Segovia,  and  Madrid. 
Thirty-four  of  the  professors  at  Alcala  were  Jesuits, 
and  the  General  of  the  Jesuits  rivalled  the  Inquisitor- 
general  in  his  authority  over  the  country.  Towards 
the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  a  struggle  for  the 
mastery  between  these  two  powers  seemed  likely  to 
take  place.  A  Jesuit,  contrary  to  his  rule,  accused 
other  Jesuits  to  the  Inquisition.  The  Holy  Office 
arrested  the  accused  and  demanded  to  examine  the 
constitutions  of  the  company.  Aquaviva  was  at  that 
time  General,  and  he  sought  the  protection  of  the  Pope. 
Sixtus  V.  desired  his  nuncio  at  Madrid  to  forbid  further 
proceedings  ;  but  the  Inquisition  continued  the  pro- 
cess, ordered  the  delivery  of  documents  belonging  to 
the  Company,  and  threw  one  of  the  fathers,  who 
refused  to  yield  them  up,  into  prison.  Sixtus  V.,  in 
great  anger,  commanded  the  restoration  of  the  books 
belonging  to  the  Jesuits,  writing  with  his  own  hand 
to  Cardinal  Quiroga,  the  grand-inquisitor,  and  ending 
his  letter  with  the  words,  ''  If  you  do  not  obey  me 
this  moment,  I,  the  Pope,  will  depose  you  from  your 
ofBce  of  grand-inquisitor,   and  will   take   away  your 


4IO        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

cardinal's  hat."  Quiroga  submitted,  and  the  battle  of 
giants  did  not  take  place.  But  it  required  all  the  in- 
genuity and  authority  of  Sixtus  V.  to  prevent  it.  The 
Inquisition  condemned  Ignatius  Loyola's  letter  on  the 
blind  obedience  required  of  the  members  of  the  Com- 
pany. Sixtus  v.,  on  appeal  being  made  to  him,  sub- 
mitted the  question  to  a  commission  of  theologians, 
and  Bellarmine's  talents  and  learning  alone  saved 
the  letter  from  being  censured  at  Rome  as  well  as  in 
Spain.  The  Inquisition  was  gagged  by  the  Pope,  but 
the  Dominicans  who  were  identified  with  the  Holy 
Office  commenced  a  fierce  attack  on  Molina,  the 
Spanish  Jesuit,  professor  at  the  University  of  Evora, 
for  the  semi-Pelagianism  taught  in  his  book  on  the 
"  Harmony  of  Free  Will  with  Gifts  of  Grace."  ^  A 
Portuguese  theologian,  Henrique,  though  a  Jesuit, 
joined  in  the  assault,  declaring  that  Molina  was 
"  preparing  the  way  for  Antichrist  by  setting  up  the 
natural  power  of  the  free  will  against  the  merits  of 
Christ."  Quiroga,  the  inquisitor-general,  after  con- 
sultation with  the  universities,  bishops,  and  theolo- 
gians of  Spain,  charged  Molina  with  heresy  under 
sixteen  heads  before  the  Pope,  who  was  now  Clement 
VIII.  The  Jesuits  as  a  body  supported  their  accused 
brother,  and  as  the  Dominican  party  called  them  Pela- 
gians, they  fixed  on  the  Dominican  party  the  name 
of  Calvinists.^  Quiroga  died  ;  Manriquez,  who  suc- 
ceeded him  as  inquisitor-general,  was  on  the  point  of 

1  "  De  concoidia  gratia3  et  liberi  aibitrii." 

2  By  the  advice  of  Ripalda,  a  Jesuit  :  "  Bannez  et  ses  disciples  ayant 
appele  pelagicnne  la  doctrine  de  Molina,  les  notres  pour  Eloigner  d'eux 
cette  note  de  pelagianisme  donnaient  comme  calviniste  la  doctrine  de 
leurs  adversaires"  (Guettee,  Histoire  cfes  Jesidfes,  i,  308). 


THE  JESUITS  IN  SPAIN.  411 

condemning  Molinism  when  he  was  prevented  by  a 
sudden  death,  and  his  successor,  Portocarrero,  was 
forbidden  to  proceed  with  the  case  by  Clement  VIII., 
who  enjoined  silence  on  both  parties.  Lanuza,  Pro- 
vincial of  the  Dominicans  in  Aragon,  protested  in  a 
letter  to  Philip  II.  against  the  silence  thus  imposed 
on  the  maintenance  of  the  old  doctrine.  Philip  sent 
Lanuza's  protest  to  Pope  Clement,  and  Clement  nomi- 
nated the  congregations  known  under  the  name  of 
De  Auxiliis  to  discuss  the  question  of  free  will  and 
grace,  and  to  examine  Mohna's  work.  After  eighteen 
sessions  the  congregations  proposed  the  condemnation 
of  Molina's  doctrine  as  semi-Pelagianism.  Clement 
desired  them  to  reconsider  their  judgment ;  they  did 
so,  and  persisted  in  it.  The  Pope  dared  not  give  a 
decision,  for  both  parties  were  too  powerful.  Sixty- 
eight  congregations  were  held  during  Clement's  life, 
and  he  died,  leaving  the  question  to  his  successor, 
Paul  v.,  who  could  solve  it  no  more  than  he.  After 
ten  years  of  disputation  the  matter  was  left  as  it 
stood,  the  semi-Pelagianism  of  the  Jesuits  and  the 
Augustinianism  of  the  Dominicans  being  both  tolerated. 
Not  long  afterwards  Augustinianism  was  condemned 
in  Jansenius,  since  which  time  the  semi-Pelagianism 
of  Molina  has  pervaded  the  Latin  communion. 

The  disputes  in  the  De  Auxiliis  congregations  led 
incidentally  to  the  Spanish  Jesuits  taking  under  their 
patronage  the  dogma  of  the  Immaculate  Conception, 
on  which  a  fierce  conflict  was  taking  place  between 
the  Dominicans  and  Franciscans.  The  reason  for  the 
Jesuits  siding  with  the  Franciscans  is  naively  de- 
scribed in   a  letter  written  from   Rome  by  Cardinal 


412        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

de  Lugo  to  a  brother  Jesuit  at  Madrid: — "Let  your 
reverence  see  that  you  and  yours  take  pains  to  re- 
awaken the  devotion  of  the  Conception,  which  is  very 
popular  in  Spain,  in  order  that  by  this  means  we  may 
turn  off  the  attacks  of  the  Dominicans,  who  are  press- 
ing us  hard  here,  having  taken  up  the  defence  of  S. 
Augustine.  If  we  don't  occupy  them  with  some  other 
matter,  they  will  beat  us  on  the  principal  points  of 
the  controversy  in  the  De  Auxiliisy  ^  In  obedience 
to  this  command,  the  Jesuits  in  Spain  issued  a  form 
called  an  Act  of  Consecration,  by  which  their  dis- 
ciples were  made  to  promise  to  defend  and  propagate 
the  belief  in  the  Immaculate  Conception.  A  furious 
contest  at  once  arose  between  them  and  the  Spanish 
Dominicans,  descending  so  low  that  they  broke  one 
another's  windows.^  Philip  II.  was  still  king  when 
the  fray  began,  and  he  was  induced  to  join  in  it  by 
issuing  a  royal  ordinance  commanding  all  preachers 
before  beginning  their  sermons  to  declare  belief  in 
the  immaculate  conception  of  S.  Mary  and  the  real 
(meaning,  material)  presence  in  the  Eucharist.  The 
Dominicans,  refusing  to  use  this  formula,  lost  their 
popularity  with  the  Spanish  masses,  as  Cardinal  de 
Lugo  had  anticipated,  while  the  Jesuits  appeared  as 
the  champions  of  the  people's  favourite  dogma.  De 
Lugo's  plan  was  successful. 

1  Quoted  by  Guettee,  Histoire  des  Jesuites,  ii.  209. 

2  "  By  Saint  James  !  "  said  the  Jesuit  Father  Aquelc,  preaching  to  the 
mob  that  had  attacked  the  houses  of  the  Dominicans  at  Alcala,  "we 
must  defend  the  immaculate  conception  of  the  Virgin  with  sword  and 
dagger,  by  blood  and  fire  ;  for  the  Virgin  would  rather  be  damned  eter- 
nally and  live  with  the  devils  than  have  been  conceived  in  original  sin." 
The  Dominicans  made  answer  by  hurling  stones  through  the  father's 
windows  (Ibid.,  210). 


THE  JESUITS  IN  SPAIN.  413 

About  the  same  time  lived  the  Spanish  Jesuit 
Escobar,  whose  name  is  identified  with  the  system 
of  lax  moral  teaching  which  met  with  the  scathing 
satire  of  Pascal,  and  has  since  that  time  been  adopted 
by  S.  Alfonso  de'  Liguori,  and  through  him  by  the 
whole  Latin  communion. 

In  Portugal  the  Jesuits  continued  to  be  powerful, 
even  more  than  in  Spain.  It  was  in  that  country 
that  they  first  began  their  role  of  being  royal  con- 
fessors and  tutors  to  the  heir  to  the  throne.  The 
young  King  Sebastian  was  their  pupil,  and  they 
ruled  in  his  name.  They  had  filled  his  mind  with 
romantic  and  chivalrous  imaginations,  such  as  might 
have  become  the  Cid  of  Spanish  legend,  but  which 
were  an  anachronism  in  a  sovereign  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  There  were  no  Moors  left  in  Europe,  but 
Morocco  was  not  far  off;  and  on  Muley  Hamet's 
soliciting  his  aid,  the  young  king  resolved  to  grant  it, 
not  so  much  with  a  view  of  helping  a  deposed  prince 
as  of  making  the  conquest  of  Morocco.  Philip  II., 
who,  to  set  against  his  many  bad  qualities,  possessed 
the  virtue  of  prudence,  tried  to  dissuade  his  kinsman, 
but  being  unsuccessful,  he  supplied  him  with  2000 
troops.  At  the  same  time  he  was  joined  by  600 
men  from  Italy,  who  had  been  despatched  by  Pope 
Gregory  XIII.  to  make  a  descent  on  Ireland  under 
the  command  of  Stukeley,  on  whom  the  Pope  had 
bestowed  the  titles  of  Baron  of  Ross,  Viscount 
Morough,  Earl  of  Wexford,  and  Marquis  of  Leinster. 
These  Italian  levies  had  been  organised  out  of  the 
brigands  that  infested  Italy  by  James  Fitz-Maurice, 
with    the   sanction    of   the    Pope,   who   had    granted 


414        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

them  remission  of  all  their  sins  on  the  condition  of 
their  joining  the  Irish  rebellion  against  Elizabeth. 
Fitz-Maurice  ordered  Stukeley  to  conduct  them  to 
Lisbon,  and  there  wait  for  himself.  King  Sebastian 
was  delighted  at  their  arrival,  and  persuaded  Stukely 
to  join  in  the  expedition  against  Morocco  on  the  condi- 
tion that  he  would  himself  afterwards  supply  troops 
for  the  reduction  of  Ireland.  The  expedition  sailed 
in  1578.  A  landing  was  effected  in  Africa,  and  a 
battle  ensued,  in  which  the  Portuguese  and  their 
allies  were  utterly  defeated  and  King  Sebastian 
killed.  The  few  Italians  who  returned  to  Lisbon 
found  James  FitzMaurice  now  arrived,  and  sailed 
with  him  for  Ireland,  accompanied  by  Cornelius, 
titular  Bishop  of  Killaloe,  and  Dr.  Sanders.  Gre- 
gory's chief  interest  in  this  invasion  is  said  to  have 
been  the  hope  of  setting  his  son  Jacopo  di  Buoncom- 
pagno  on  the  throne  of  Ireland. 

Cardinal  Henrique,  now  an  old  man,  succeeded 
his  nephew,  Sebastian,  as  King  of  Portugal.  He 
proved  to  be,  like  his  predecessor,  a  tool  in  the  hands 
of  the  Jesuits,  who  prepared  the  way,  on  his  decease, 
for  the  accession  of  Philip  II.  of  Spain.  By  that  act 
the  whole  Peninsula  was  united  under  one  sceptre,  but 
it  did  not  so  continue  long.  In  the  reign  of  Philip's 
grandson — Philip  IV.  of  Spain  and  III.  of  Portugal 
— a  revolution  placed  on  the  throne  of  Portugal  the 
Duke  of.  Braganza,  who  took  the  name  of  Joao  IV„ 

During  the  reigns  of  Philip  III.  and  Philip  IV.,  the 
united  kingdom  of  Spain  and  Portugal  was  governed 
by  the  Jesuits  by  means  of  royal  confessors.  When 
the   two    kingdoms    again    separated    the   Order  was 


THE  JESUITS  IN  SPAIN.  4i5  ' 

still  equally  powerful  in  each  country ;  in  Spain, 
through  the  influence  of  Father  Nithard,  confessor  to 
the  Regent  Maria  Anna  until  his  expulsion  from  the 
kingdom ;  ^  in  Portugal,  by  the  instrumentality  of 
three  Jesuit  fathers  who  succeeded  one  another  in 
directing  the  conscience  of  Joao  IV. 

King  Joao  had  three  sons — Theodosius,  who  at- 
tached himself  formally  to  the  Jesuit  company,  but 
died  before  his  father,  Afifonso  VI.  and  Pedro  II.,  who 
succeeded  to  the  throne  in  turn.  The  Queen-Regent 
Luisa,  who  held  the  reins  of  government  during  the 
minority  of  Afifonso,  was  ruled  by  her  Jesuit  con- 
fessor, Nunez,  and  by  the  late  prince's  tutor,  Fer- 
nandez, also  a  Jesuit,  who  became  a  bishop  in  Japan. 
Afifonso  was  a  rude,  coarse-natured  man,  and  a  con- 
spiracy was  formed  against  him  by  his  mother,  his 
wife  (who,  like  the  elder  lady,  had  a  Jesuit  for  her 
confessor),  and  three  Jesuits  named  Vieira,  Da  Sylva, 
and  Da  Cunha.  The  result  of  this  court  intrigue  was 
that  Afifonso  was  deposed  and  Pedro  substituted  in 
his  place.  Afifonso's  Queen  Isabel  divorced  herself 
from  her  dethroned  husband,  and  married  his  brother, 
with  the  sanction  of  the  Cardinal  Vendome,  Papal 
legate,  confirmed  by  Pope  Clement. 

1  '•  The  inhabitants  tumulluously  assembled  before  the  palace,  ex- 
claiming, *  Deliver  us  from  the  Jesuit ;  dismiss  the  Jesuit,  or  the  city 
will  be  abandoned  to  pillage.'  In  an  agony  of  indignation  and  de- 
spair the  queen  threw  herself  on  the  ground  and  bewailed  her  situation. 
'  Alas,  alas  ! '  she  cried,  '  what  does  it  avail  me  to  be  queen  and 
regent  if  I  am  deprived  of  this  good  man,  who  is  my  only  consola- 
tion?'  After  a  short  negotiation,  conducted  by  the  Papal  nuncio,  she 
was  compelled  to  dismiss  her  favourite.  In  1669  he  retired  to  Rome, 
where  the  favour  of  his  royal  mistress  offered  him  the  title  of  ambas- 
sador and  the  dignity  of  cardinal "  (Coxe,  Memoirs  of  the  House  of 
Bourbon^  i.  22). 


4i6        HISTORY  OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

This  intrigue  once  more  brought  into  collision  the 
two  great  powers  within  the  Peninsula  which  had 
substituted  themselves  for  the  legitimate  authority 
of  the  National  Church — the  Inquisition  ^  and  the 
Company  of  Jesus.  The  Portuguese  inquisitors  had 
laid  hands  on  one  of  the  leading  conspirators,  Father 
Vieira,  not  on  account  of  the  conspiracy,  but  because 
he  was  charged  with  astrology  and  with  claiming 
predictive  powers.  As  soon  as  Affonso  VI.  was 
deposed  and  Dom  Pedro  and  Father  Fernandez  were 
in  authority,  he  was  at  once  released  from  their 
prisons,  but  an  unpardonable  insult  had  been  offered 
to  the  Societ}^,  and  Pedro,  tutored  by  Fernandez, 
wrote  to  Pope  Clement  X.  to  complain  of  the  action 
of  the  Inquisition.  Vieira  himself,  after  being  de- 
livered from  prison,  went  to  Rome  with  the  same 
object.  On  a  similar  occasion  the  Pope  had  threat- 
ened the  Spanish  inquisitor-general  to  remove  him 
unless  he  at  once  delivered  up  his  Jesuit  prisoner. 
The  Portuguese  Inquisition  might  be  treated  more 
cavalierty.  Clement  X.  in  1674  suspended  its  action 
throughout  the  whole  of  Portugal.  It  would  be  well 
if  we  were  able  to  regard  this  step  as  an  expression 
of  a  feeling  of  repugnance,  if  not  of  horror,  for  the 
proceedings  of  the  Inquisition,  but  this  was  not  the 
case.  A  hundred  years  previously  Cardinal  Caraffa  and 
Cardinal  de  Toledo  had  persuaded  the  Pope  to  erect 
at  Rome  a  supreme  tribunal  of  the  Inquisition,  to  hold 

^  The  Inquisition  was  formally  established  in  Portugal  by  Clement 
VII.  and  Paul  III.  in  1534  and  1536.  The  first  inquisitor-general  for 
Portugal  was  Da  Silva,  Bishop  of  Ceuta  ;  the  second,  Dom  Henrique, 
uncle  of  Sebastian,  who  became  King  of  Portugal  on  his  nephew's 
death  ;  the  third  was  Da  Almeida,  Archbishop  of  Lisbon. 


THE  JESUITS  IN  SPAIN.  417 

authority  011  questions  of  faith  on  both  sides  of  the 
Alps  and  throughout  the  Latin  communion,  consist- 
ing of  six  cardinals.  At  first  the  energies  of  this 
body  of  inquisitors  were  occupied  in  crushing  Protes- 
tantism in  Italy,  but  it  was  not  contented  to  confine 
itself  to  Italy.  As  the  Roman  Church  elbowed  out 
the  various  National  Churches,  so  the  Roman  Inquisi- 
tion would  supersede  all  National  Inquisitions.  The 
Jesuits  appealed  to  the  jealousy  of  local  independence 
entertained  at  Rome,  and  thus  succeeded  in  revenging 
the  blow  struck  them  by  the  Inquisition  of  Portugal. 

Under  Pedro  the  power  of  the  Jesuits  at  the  court 
of  Portugal  was  overpowering.  Absolute  authority 
was  granted  them  over  the  Portuguese  dependencies 
in  Brazil  and  elsewhere,  where  they  behaved  to  the 
natives  as  benevolent  despots,  regarding  them  as  their 
serfs,  whom  it  was  their  duty  to  treat  with  kindness 
and  to  baptize  as  Christians.  Joao  V.,  who  succeeded 
Pedro  II.,  had  been  educated  by  Jesuit  tutors,  and 
his  court  was  at  first  filled  with  members  of  the 
Society,  but  after  a  time  the  king  broke  away  from 
their  control.  He  selected  an  Oratorian  for  his  con- 
fessor, and  began  to  take  measures  against  the  Jesuit 
fathers  in  concert  with  Benedict  XIV.  He  had  not 
yet  shaken  himself  free  from  their  fetters  when  he 
died,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Jose.  Jose  con- 
tinued the  later  policy  of  his  father,  and  on  his  peti- 
tion Benedict  XIV.  sent  Cardinal  Saldanha  to  reform 
the  Company  in  the  kingdom  of  Portugal.  Saldanha 
prohibited  the  colonial  trading  by  which  the  Jesuits 
enriched  themselves ;  and  the  bishops  of  Portugal, 
encouraged   by  finding  a  division   between   the   Pope 


4i8        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

and  the  Jesuits,  forbade  the  latter  to  officiate  in  any 
of  their  dioceses.  But  Benedict  died  in  1758,  and 
was  succeeded  by  Clement  XIII.,  a  warm  friend  and 
patron  of  the  Company.  Just  at  this  time  an  attempt 
was  made  to  assassinate  the  King  of  Portugal  by  the 
Marquis  Tavora,  and  it  was  supposed  that  he  was 
instigated  by  the  Jesuits.  A  commission  of  investi- 
gation was  appointed;  which  pronounced  against  them. 
All  the  bishops  declared  against  them.  Some  of  their 
number  were  handed  over  to  the  Inquisition  and  exe- 
cuted, and  in  1 759  the  whole  body  was  banished  from 
the  kingdom  by  the  influence  of  Pombal,  and  trans- 
ported to  the  States  of  the  Church. 

Similar  events  were  occurring  in  Spain.  On  the 
accession  of  the  Bourbon  family  in  the  person  of 
Philip  v.,  grandson  of  Louis  XIV.  (secured  by  the 
adhesion  to  his  cause  of  Cardinal  Portocarrero,  Arch- 
bishop of  Toledo),  Pere  D'Aubenton  became  royal 
confessor  and  a  ruling  influence  at  court.  Dissatis- 
fied at  finding  his  authority  over  the  king  shared  by 
the  Princess  Orsini,  he  contrived  to  get  her  banished 
from  Spain  ;  but  she  soon  returned,  and  was  able  to 
expel  her  opponent,  who  was,  however,  succeeded 
in  his  office  of  confessor  by  another  Jesuit  named 
Robinet,  until  the  king  could  be  induced  to  recall 
D'Aubenton.  Philip's  son,  Fernando  VI.,  was  as 
devoted  to  the  Jesuits  as  his  father,  and  his  con- 
fessor, Father  Ravago,  was  a  Jesuit ;  but  the  Society 
had  outlived  its  popularity  in  Spain.  The  Due  de 
S.  Simon  reports  a  misadventure  which  made  them — 
a  fatal  thing — an  object  of  ridicule.  Large  boxes  of 
chocolate  arrived  at  Cadiz  from  the  Colonies  addressed 


THE  JESUITS  IN  SPAIN.  419 

to  the  Company.  The  weight  of  these  boxes  so  sur- 
prised the  porters  that  one  of  them  was  examined. 
It  was  full  of  sticks  of  chocolate,  but  the  weight  was 
not  accounted  for  until  an  attempt  was  made  to  break 
one  of  the  sticks,  when  it  was  found  to  be  pure  gold 
overlaid  with  chocolate.-^  Popular  opinion  declared 
that  the  Jesuits  were  at  the  bottom  of  a  revolt  of  the 
natives  of  South  America,  and  of  an  insurrection 
which  took  place  in  Madrid,  and  they  so  lost  their 
prestige  that  in  the  reign  of  Fernando's  successor, 
Carlos  III.,  the  government  felt  itself  strong  enough 
to  rid  the  Peninsula  of  them.  In  1767  Carlos  wrote 
to  Clement  XIII,  declaring  himself  to  be  under  the 
necessity  of  immediately  expelling  from  his  kingdom 
and  possessions  all  the  Jesuits  found  in  them,  saying 
that  he  proposed  to  send  them  at  once  to  the  Papal 
States,  granting  them  a  pension  to  support  them  as 
long  as  they  lived.  At  the  same  time  he  wrote  to  all 
the  royal  officers  as  follows : — "  I  invest  you  with  my 
whole  authority  and  royal  power  to  proceed  imme- 
diately to  the  houses  of  the  Jesuits.  You  will  seize 
them  all,  and  conduct  them  as  prisoners  to  such-and- 

^  The  charge  of  amassing  wealth  for  the  society  and  denying  that 
they  did  so  is  amply  proved  against  the  Jesuits  in  all  the  dependencies 
of  Spain  and  Portugal.  M.  Martin,  the  head  of  the  French  East 
Indian  Company,  reported  that  the  Jesuits  made  more  out  of  India 
than  any  nation  except  the  British,  and  that  to  conceal  their  traffic 
they  wore  shoes  with  high  heels,  containing  within  them  little  boxes  in 
which  they  carried  diamonds  and  other  precious  stones,  which  enabled 
them  to  report  to  Europe  without  falsehood  that  they  trampled  under 
foot  the  riches  of  India: — "Se  c'est  ainsi  qu'ils  I'entendent  lorsqu'ils 
assurent,  dans  les  relations  qu'ils  envoient  en  Europe  a  leurs  credules 
devots,  qu'ils  foulent  mix  pieds  les  7-ichesses  des  Indes,  ils  ont  certaine- 
ment  raisou  et  Ton  ne  peut  pas  mieux  pratiquer  leur  morale  pratique. 
O  sainte  restriction  mentale  !  bienheureux  est  le  Jesuite  Escobar  qui  vous 
a  inventee  !  "  (quoted  by  Guettee,  Histoire  des  Jesuites,  ii.  42). 

2  E 


420        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

such  a  port  within  twenty-four  hours.  There  they 
are  to  be  made  to  embark  in  ships  prepared  for  the 
purpose.  You  are  to  seal  up  the  archives  and  papers, 
allowing  them  only  their  Prayer  Books  and  change  of 
linen.  If  after  this  one  single  Jesuit  be  found  in  your 
department,  even  though  he  were  sick  or  dying,  you 
shall  be  punished  with  death.     (Signed)  I,  the  King." 

These  orders  were  opened  on  the  same  day  and  at 
the  same  hour  at  every  spot,  however  distant,  and  the 
Jesuits  were  seized  and  sent  off  by  sea  to  the  Papal 
States.  The  Pope  wrote  a  piteous  letter  of  entreaty  to 
the  king,  but  without  effect.  The  king  submitted  the 
letter  to  his  Council  of  State,  and  replied  coldly  that 
He  assured  his  Holiness  that  he  had  sufficient  proof 
of  the  necessity  of  banishing  the  whole  Company  from 
his  States.  The  Pope  seemed  httle  willing  to  welcome 
his  involuntary  guests.  The  Governor  of  Civita  Vecchia 
refused  to  admit  them,  saying  that  he  had  no  orders 
to  do  so,  and  they  were  kept  tossing  at  sea  till  Clement 
was  shamed  into  receiving  them.  After  their  admission 
many  disguising  themselves  as  laymen  returned  to  the 
Peninsula,  but  only  one  Portuguese  bishop  had  sided 
with  them,  and  for  the  present  their  day  was  past. 
Very  soon  came  the  Brief  of  Clement  XIV.,  dated  1773, 
suppressing  the  Company  altogether.  Clement's  death, 
however,  as  we  know,  quickly  followed  this  courageous 
act,  and  the  Jesuits  began  to  recover  the  ground  tliat 
they  had  lost. 

In  Portugal,  Queen  Maria  I.,  as  a  dutiful  daughter, 
paid  Pope  Pius  VI.  1,080,000  scudi  to  reimburse  the 
Papal  treasury  for  the  expense  that  it  had  been  put 
to  by  the  transportation  of  the  Portuguese  Jesuits,  and 


THE  JESUITS  IN  SPAIN.  421 

she  tried  her  utmost  to  efface  the  marks  of  the  late 
rupture  of  the  country  with  the  Company  and  the 
Pope.  She  Hved  on  to  18 16,  but  as  she  became  im- 
becile, her  son  Joao  VI.  was  appointed  regent  in  1799. 
When  Napoleon  let  loose  his  troops  into  the  Peninsula 
in  1807,  Joao  fled  with  his  family  to  Brazil,  where  he 
remained  till  the  storm  of  the  French  invasion  was 
passed ;  and  on  his  return  he  left,  as  governor  of  the 
dependency,  his  son  Pedro,  who  became  first  Emperor 
of  Brazil  in  1822.  On  Joao's  death  in  1826  his  daugh- 
ter Isabel  was  declared  regent  in  behalf  of  her  younger 
brother,  Miguel;  the  elder  brother,  Pedro,  being  regarded 
as  incapacitated  by  having  accepted  the  sovereignty  of 
Brazil.  Pedro  refused  to  acquiesce  in  this  arrangement, 
and  claimed  the  throne  of  Portugal  for  his  daughter, 
Maria  da  Gloria.  The  Cortes  declared  Miguel  king, 
and  in  return  for  being  recognised  by  the  Pope  he 
restored  the  Jesuits  to  power  in  1832.  But  the  claims 
of  Maria  11.  were  backed  by  France  and  England,  and 
Maria's  father,  Pedro,  having  succeeded  in  obtaining 
the  throne  for  his  daughter,  drove  out  Miguel  and 
after  him,  once  more,  the  Jesuits.  The  result  was  a 
breach  between  Portugal  and  the  Pope,  to  whose  court 
Miguel  withdrew;  but  as  soon  as  Maria  was  firmly 
settled  on  the  throne  the  Pontiff  found  it  his  interest 
to  ignore  the  Pretender  and  acknowledge  the  de  facto 
sovereign.  In  1841  the  queen  and  the  Pontiff  came  to 
terms,  and  the  temporary  schism  between  the  Churches 
of  Rome  and  Portugal  was  healed,  Miguel  giving  up 
his  residence  at  the  Papal  court  and  withdrawing  to 
Bavaria.  From  that  time  the  Jesuits  and  the  various 
monastic  bodies  have  had  free  scope  in  the  kingdom. 


422         HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

In  Spain  the  Jesuits  were  re-established  together 
with  the  Inquisition  by  Fernando  VII.  as  one  of  the 
first  acts  of  his  reign  in  1 8 1 5 .  In  1 820  they  were  again 
driven  out  by  the  people.  In  1822  Fernando  again 
recalled  them.  In  the  Carlist  wars  they  sided  with 
the  Pretender.  In  1835  they  were  again  expelled. 
Since  the  Bourbon  restoration  of  1875  they  have  spread 
through  the  country  in  increasing  numbers,  but  they 
are  regarded  as  irreconcilable  enemies  by  the  constitu- 
tionalists both  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  who  jealously 
and  angrily  watch  their  progress.  Their  ro/e  is  not 
played  out  in  either  division  of  the  Peninsula.^ 

^  "  On  the  return  of  a  king  the  Orders  began  to  creep  back  again, 
at  first  very  quietly,  but  afterwards  more  openly,  until  now  (1886) 
hundreds  and  thousands  of  monks  who  have  been  expelled  from 
France  and  from  Italy  find  a  secure  resting-place  this  side  the  Pyre- 
nees "  (Field,  Old  and  New  Spain,  p.  164). 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

THE   SPANISH   MYSTICS. 

In  1559  there  were  at  least  a  thousand  Protestants  m 
Seville,  a  thousand  in  Valladolid,  and  a  proportionate 
number  in  all  the  towns  of  Spain.^  In  15 70  there  were 
none.  They  were  all  burnt,  or  driven  by  the  fear  of 
being  burnt  into  professing  themselves  Roman  Catholics. 
The  Inquisition  continued  its  hateful  work  with  as  great 
vigilance  as  ever  through  the  reigns  of  the  later  Aus- 
trian and  Bourbon  kings,  but  it  had  to  go  back  to  its 
earlier  prey,  the  Jews,  and  to  find  new  victims  in  the 
Freemasons,  for  lack  of  Protestants  to  burn.  Protes- 
tantism did  not  dare  to  lift  its  head  again  in  Spain  until 
the  revolution  of  General  Prim  in  the  year  1868. 

But  Luther's  Reformation  in  Germany  could  not 
be  without  its  effect  on  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese 
Churches,  though  it  was  not  permitted  to  bring  forth  its 
legitimate  fruit  in  those  countries.  The  first  result  was 
the  Counter-Reformation  which  took  place  throughout 
the  Roman  communion.  One  form  of  this  movement 
was  Jesuitism,  but  not  the  noblest  form.  There  was 
a  stir  and  a  shaking  throughout  the  Roman  Catholic 

^  Gonzalo  de  Ilesca?,  m  his  Ilistoria  Ponlifical,  vol.  ii.,  says  that  "if 
two  or  three  months  more  had  been  suffered  to  eLipse  before  applying 
a  remedy  to  this  mischief  (Lutheranism),  the  conflagration  would  have 
spread  itself  all  over  Spain  and  brought  upon  her  the  most  dire  misfor- 
tunes she  had  ever  seen."  Cazalla  is  reported  to  have  said,  before  his 
martyrdom  at  Valladolid,  that  four  more  months  would  have  been 
enough  to  have  made  the  Protestants  a  match  for  the  Roman  Catholics. 

423 


424        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

world,  which  led  to  a  reformation  of  abuses  and  an 
increase  of  zeal,  if  it  led  at  the  same '  time  to  a  more 
resolute  grasp  and  a  more  dogged  maintenance  of 
mediaeval  in  place  of  primitive  doctrines.  An  emotional 
school  sprang  up  in  Spain,  the  object  of  which  was 
to  kindle  the  flame  of  piety  in  the  heart  while  still 
jealously  keeping  within  the  lines  laid  down  by  the 
authority  of  the  Church  and  its  hierarchy.  The  prin- 
ciples of  this  school  find  expression  in  the  person  of 
S.  Teresa.  She  was  born  two  years  before  Luther  de- 
nounced Tetzel  and  his  sale  of  indulgences  and  pardons. 
Her  father  was  Alonzo  Sanchez  de  Cepeda  of  Avila,  but 
in  her  early  life  she  was  known  by  a  name  which  she 
derived  from  her  mother,  Teresa  de  Ahumada ;  her 
conventual  name  was  Teresa  de  Jesus.  After  her 
mother's  death  her  father  sent  her  to  the  Convent  of 
our  Lady  of  Grace,  in  displeasure  at  her  having  held 
meetings  and  correspondence  with  a  young  man  to 
whom  she  believed  herself  attached.  Here  she  made 
up  her  mind  to  become  a  nun,  and  after  returning 
home  was  admitted  into  a  Carmelite  convent  in  1533 
against  her  father's  will.  She  is  described  at  this  time 
as  being  beautiful  and  attractive,  with  dark  curling 
hair,  a  bright  complexion,  and  brilliant  dark  eyes  that 
sparkled  when  she  was  excited.  The  conventual  life 
broke  down  her  health,  and  her  father  had  to  take  her 
to  a  place  called  Bezeda  for  change.  Here  slie  con- 
verted her  confessor,  who  was  leading  a  life  that  was 
not  unusual  in  celibate  priests.  Her  health  getting 
better,  through  the  intercession,  as  she  supposed,  of 
S.  Joseph,  she  returned  to  her  convent,  and  soon  she 
began  to  have  visions  and  ecstasies  of  prayer,  which 
her  confessor  commanded  her  to  look  upon  as  delu- 


THE  SPANISH  MYSTICS.  425 

sions  of  the  devil.  She  had  cataleptical  seizures, 
which  deprived  her  of  consciousness,  so  much  so  that 
on  one  occasion  she  lay  for  four  days  without  moving, 
and  was  on  the  point  of  being  laid  in  the  grave  when 
she  recovered  her  senses. 

In  1555  Francis  of  Borgia,  the  Jesuit  General,  came 
to  Avila,  declared  that  her  raptures  proceeded  from 
God,  and  desired  her  confessor  to  encourage  her  in 
them.  In  one  of  her  visions,  of  which  she  now  had 
many,  she  had  a  revelation  of  the  place  that  she  de- 
served in  hell,  a  foul  dark  cell,  like  an  oven,  in  which 
she  could  neither  sit  nor  lie  down,  full  of  vermin  and 
stinking,  where  the  hot  walls  crushed  her  in  and  stifled 
her,  and  she  could  do  nothing  but  torment  herself  by  the 
thought  of  being  lost.  In  another,  the  devil  appeared 
as  a  very  ugly  little  negro,  gnashing  his  teeth  at  her, 
till  she  got  rid  of  him  by  sprinkling  holy  water ;  but 
he  left  behind  him  an  odour  of  brimstone,  which  two 
of  the  nuns  smelt.  At  another  time  she  saw  the  devil 
sitting  on  her  breviary.  Her  Divine  Bridegroom 
frequently  appeared  to  her,  showing  her  His  hands, 
^'  of  exceeding  great  and  ineffable  beauty,"  afterwards 
His  face,  and  *'  at  Mass  His  most  sacred  Humanity." 
On  one  occasion  He  drew  out  the  nail  from  His  left 
Hand  with  His  right  Hand  before  her;  three  times  He 
showed  Himself  to  her  in  the  Bosom  of  the  Father. 
One  day  she  had  a  vision  of  her  own  soul,  in  the 
centre  of  which  she  saw  Christ,  ^'  as  I  am  accustomed 
to  see  Him,"  though  He  pervaded  the  whole  of  it. 
Once  Christ  gave  her  a  precious  cup ;  at  another  time 
He  visibly  filled  her  mouth  with  His  blood,  which  ran 
over  her  dress.  On  another  occasion  a  large  white 
dove   fluttered   over   her.      The   best    known    of  her 


426        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

visions,  often  represented  in  paintings,  is  that  of  an 
angel  with  a  beautiful  and  burning  face,  who  holds  in 
his  hand  a  long  golden  iron-pointed  spear.  This  he 
thrust  into  her  heart,  and  drew  out  with  it  her  heart 
and  all  that  was  within  her,  leaving  her  on  fire  with 
the  love  of  God.  She  felt  that  thenceforward  her  soul 
could  be  satisfied  with  nothing  less  tlian  God.  In  1560 
her  ecstasies  were  still  further  encouraged  by  S.  Pedro 
de  Alcantara,  an  ascetic  who  lived  in  a  cell  only  four 
feet  long,  ate  only  once  in  three  days,  wore  sackcloth, 
and  is  said  for  forty  years  to  have  given  himself  only 
an  hour  and  a  half  of  sleep  out  of  the  twenty-four  hours. 
She  was  not  contented  with  her  nun's  life ;  she  wanted 
to  do  something  more  than  dress  and  adorn  the  images 
in  the  chapel ;  and  while  she  was  in  this  disposition  of 
mind  one  of  her  companions  suggested  the  foundation 
of  a  new  and  stricter  convent.  She  grasped  at  the 
idea,  and  secretly  bought  a  house  with  money  sent 
her  by  her  brother  and  given  by  other  friends.  She 
applied  at  the  same  time  for  a  Papal  Bull  to  sanction 
the  foundation  of  a  new  convent,  taking  care  that  the 
prioress  should  know  nothing  of  what  she  was  doing. 
The  desired  permission  came,  and  in  1562  she  began 
the  Convent  of  S.  Joseph  with  four  novices,  who  were 
to  be  supported  by  alms.  The  prioress  sent  for  her 
in  high  anger,  but  Teresa  pacified  her,  and  was  per- 
mitted to  return  to  her  own  convent.  The  nuns  grew 
from  four  to  thirteen,  from  thirteen  to  twenty.  Her 
rule,  based  on  that  of  the  Carmelites,  was  very  strict, 
and  she  was  much  occupied  in  writing  spiritual  books. 
She  was  now  in  a  position  to  take  her  part  in  efforts 
to  reform  the  Spanish  Church,  for  that  it  needed  refor- 
mation and  a  return  to  greater  spirituality  of  life  all 


THE  SPANISH  MYSTICS.  427 

religious-minded  people  felt,  though  what  most  of  them 
desired  was  a  return  to  mediaeval,  not  to  primitive,  doc- 
trines and  practices. 

The  '^  Friar  of  Burgos,"  quoted  by  Sandoval,^  com- 
plains that  the  great  care  of  the  bishops  was  to  "  create 
estates  for  their  children,  whom  they  call  nephews  and 
nieces,"  and  prays  those  in  authority,  '^  for  the  love  of 
Jesus  Christ,  to  be  careful  whom  you  appoint  to  serve 
the  cathedral  and  parochial  churches."  Fray  Fran- 
cisco de  Ossuna  in  1 542  laments  over  the  way  in  which 
the  bishops  and  prelates  of  Spain  make  their  dignities 
serve  them  instead  of  serving  their  dignities.^  Friar 
Pablo  de  Leon,  in  his  Gziia  del  Cielo,  1553,  declares 
the  pastors  of  souls  to  be  ^'  wolves,  enemies,  tyrants, 
robbers."  He  says  that  it  is  scarcely  '^  possible  to  find 
either  cathedral  or  collegiate  church  in  which  all  or 
most  of  the  clergy  are  not  living  with  concubines,  by 
whom  they  have  a  numerous  offspring,  who  are  pro- 
vided for  out  of  the  property  of  the  Church.  All  this 
accursed  evil,"  he  adds,  ''comes  from  whence  we 
expect  perfection,  namely,  from  Rome.  From  hence 
all  wickedness  proceeds.  Unhappily,  by  our  sins  in 
Rome,  that  city  has  become  the  very  abyss  of  these 
and  other  attendant  evils;  and  as  the  majority  of  our 
cathedral  clergy  go  to  Rome,  almost  all  of  them  are 
struck  with  this  pestilence,  which  never  leaves  them  till 
they  die.  The  inferiors  learn  of  the  superiors,  and  so 
everything  is  lost  in  the  Church  of  God.  The  Church 
is  full  of  ignorance  —  everything  is  pomp,  parade, 
folly,  malice,  lewdness,  and  pride.  Nothing  is  under- 
stood but  how  best  to  aggrandise  and  exalt  families. 

^  Historia  del  Emperador  Carlos  V.,  tom.  i. 
^  Adecedarz'o  Espiritual,  ii.  2. 


428        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

There  are  canons  and  archdeacons  who  hold  from  ten 
to  twenty  benefices,  and  serve  none.  What  account 
will  these  men  give  to  God  ?  "  Cristoval  De  Villalon 
bears  like  testimony.^  So,  too,  does  De  Lugo,  Bishop 
of  Calahorra,  in  his  Aviso  de  Ctiras,  A.D.  1543.  Dr. 
Poras  pleads  for  a  knowledge  of  Holy  Scripture.^ 
Sepulveda  contrasts  the  primitive  sanctity  of  the 
bishops  and  clergy  with  modern  laxity.^  Canon  Ciruelo 
denounces  formahty  in  devotion.*  Bishop  Virues  writes 
against  persecution.^  Malon  de  Chale,  an  Augustinian 
monk,  born  about  1530,  complains  that  a  revengeful 
man,  a  manslayer,  a  robber  of  the  poor,  thinks  himself 
a  good  Christian  if  he  goes  to  confession  and  has  a 
fashionable  confessor.  Men  called  so  loudly  for  reform 
that  the  inquisitors  began  to  scent  Lutheranism.  Juan 
de  Avila,  one  of  the  most  celebrated  preachers  and 
writers  of  his  day,  had  to  defend  himself  before  them. 
Luis  de  Granada's  ^'  Guide  of  Sinners  "  was  put  in  the 
Index.  Luis  de  Leon,  who  spoke  plainly  of  the  igno- 
rance of  the  clergy,  was  imprisoned  for  five  years,  and 
threatened  with  the  rack  and  with  suspension.  S.  Juan 
of  the  Cross  and  S.  Teresa  both  trembled  before  the 
dread  tribunal.  But  the  Inquisition  needed  not  to  be 
suspicious.  It  was  mysticism,  not  Lutheranism,  to 
which  these  pious  men  and  women  were  looking  for 
the  remedy  of  the  laxity  and  formalism  of  their  age. 

In  1567  Teresa  determined  on  enlarging  her  institu- 
tion. She  established  convents  for  women  at  Medina 
del  Campo,  at  Alcaki,  at  Malaga,  and  at  Valladolid,  and 

^    Tratado  de  Catnbios,  A.  D.  1 546, 

2   Tratado  de  la  Oracion,  A.D.  1552. 

8  De >?i aerates,  A.T).  1541. 

4  Repjovacion  de  las  Supersticioncs,  A.D.  1559. 

^  Disputaciones^  a.d.  1541. 


THE  SPANISH  MYSTICS.  429 

with  the  help  of  S.  John  of  the  Cross,  the  great  mys- 
tical writer  of  Spain,  she  founded  her  first  convent  for 
men.  John  was  her  first  friar,  and  he  was  joined  by 
Fray  Antonio  de  Heredia  from  Medina.  Don  Luis  de 
Toledo  built  a  small  monastery  for  them  at  Mancera, 
of  which  they  took  possession  in  1 570.  Seventeen 
convents  for  women  and  fifteen  for  men  were  founded 
in  Teresa's  Hfetime,  sometimes  with,  sometimes  with- 
out, the  sanction  of  the  local  ecclesiastical  authority. 
In  1 57 1  she  returned  to  her  original  convent,  not  now 
as  a  simple  nun,  but  as  prioress.  She  held  that  office 
three  years,  and  then  returned  to  S.  Joseph's.  Soon 
after  this  she  established  a  new  house  in  Seville,  where 
the  archbishop  publicly  asked  for  her  blessing  when 
she  knelt  to  him  for  his.  Here  she  was  brought 
into  conflict  with  the  Inquisition,  and  was  imperi- 
ously ordered  to  make  no  more  foundations.  Ill  blood 
arose  between  the  ''  reformed  "  and  the  '^  unreformed  " 
branches  of  the  Carmelite  Order.  The  new  convents 
separated  from  the  others.  The  nuncio  imprisoned 
her  chief  supporters,  and  confined  Teresa  to  a  con- 
vent. But  PhiHp  II.  stood  her  friend.  The  separa- 
tion between  the  reformed  and  unreformed  orders  was 
carried  out,  and  Teresa,  released  from  confinement, 
became  the  unrestricted  ruler  of  the  reformed  order 
which  she  had  originated.  In  1582  she  died  at 
Alba,  in  the  sixty-eighth  year  of  her  age.  She  was 
canonised  by  Gregory  XV.  in  1622.  Before  the  end 
of  the  eighteenth  century  there  were  seven  hundred 
houses  of  her  order. 

Teresa  and  Juan  of  the  Cross  are  the  representatives 
of  that  form  of  mysticism  which  was  sanctioned  and 
approved  by  the  Roman  Church,  while  it  condemned 


430        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

another  Spaniard,  Molinos,  to  perpetual  imprisonment 
for  teaching  which  only  differed  from  theirs  by  not 
exhibiting  absolute  submissiveness  to  the  direction  of 
the  confessor.^  The  essence  of  mysticism  is  the  doc- 
trine of  the  immediate  apprehension  of  God  by  the 
soul,  and  a  mysterious  intercourse  with  Him  carried 
on  without  any  natural  media.  This  contemplation 
and  apprehension  of  God  is  designated  by  Teresa  as 
prayer.  There  are,  she  says,  four  forms  of  prayer, 
which  may  be  explained  by  the  similitude  of  four  ways 
of  watering  a  garden.  The  first  is  dipping  the  water 
and  watering  by  hand  ;  this  is  laborious,  and  produces 
comparatively  little  effect.  The  second  is  raising  the 
water  by  a  wheel  and  distributing  it  through  little 
aqueducts;  this  is  less  toilsome  and  more  profitable. 
The  third  is  using  running  water  from  a  springing  well, 
which  has  only  to  be  turned  in  the  right  directions. 
The  fourth  is  receiving  the  rain  from  heaven. 

The  first  of  these  forms  of  prayer  does  not  differ  from 
the  fervent  prayer  of  devout  souls.  The  second  form 
is  called   the  prayer  of  quiet  or  pure  contemplation. 

^  Fernandez  de  Toro,  Bishop  of  Oviedo,  was  deposed  for  Molinism 
(that  is,  for  holding  the  views  of  Molinos,  not  of  Molina).  Juan  de 
Causadas,  a  close  friend  and  disciple  of  Molinos,  was  burnt  by  the 
Inquisition  at  Logrogno.  His  nephew,  Juan  de  Longas,  was  sentenced 
by  the  same  authority  in  1729  to  two  hundred  strokes  with  a  whip  and 
ten  years  of  the  galleys,  to  be  followed  by  perpetual  imprisonment. 
Mother  Agucda  died  under  the  torture,  which  made  her  confess  to  an 
incredible  number  of  crimes.  Her  confessor,  Juan  de  la  Vega,  who 
had  been  compared  for  sanctity  with  Juan  of  tlie  Cross  and  called  the 
Ecstatic,  was  charged  with  like  crimes  and  imprisoned  for  life  ;  the  only 
fault  that  torture  compelled  him  to  acknowledge  being  that  of  having 
received  money  for  11,800  Masses,  none  of  which  he  had  said.  It  is 
possible  that  in  the  last  two  cases  mysticism  and  asceticism  had  led  to 
licentiousness  (as  in  the  Gnostics  of  old),  justified  by  the  delusive  plea 
that  the  acts  of  the  flesh  were  indifferent  in  those  who  lived  in  the 
spirit. 


THE  SPANISH  MYSTICS.  431 

Here  the  will  is  entirely  absorbed  in  God,  but  the  un- 
derstanding and  memory  are  still  awake.  The  third 
form  is  called  the  prayer  of  union  or  perfect  contem- 
plation. In  this  state  all  the  faculties  of  the  soul  are 
suspended.  Will,  understanding,  and  memory  are  all 
gone,  in  order  that  God  may  enter  the  heart  in  place 
of  them.  The  fourth  form  is  the  prayer  of  rapture  or 
ecstasy.  Here  the  faculties,  both  of  body  and  soul, 
have  ceased  to  act.  You  know  nothing,  and  if  the  eyes 
are  open  you  see  nothing — neither  senses  nor  spiritual 
powers  operate.  The  body  is  often  lifted  by  a  giant 
force  and  kept  suspended  in  the  air.^  The  soul  is 
wholly  passive,  in  order  to  be  fully  receptive  of  the 
divinity.  This  is  the  highest  state  of  perfection  that 
the  human  soul  can  attain  to  on  earth.  Its  joy  is 
beyond  all  joy,  and  beyond  all  comprehension.  It  can 
but  silently  wonder  and  rejoice  in  God  and  His  good- 
ness. Such  a  state  cannot,  unfortunately,  be  per- 
manent. The  human  consciousness  must  return,  but 
the  mind  is  now  dulled  to  all  earthly  objects,  and  the 
soul  is  filled  with  humility,  which  has  been  inwrought 
in  it  by  the  presence  of  God. 

Juan  of  the  Cross  carried  the  doctrine  of  humility 
into  a  morbid  excess.  He  advises  one  who  would  be 
perfect  to  do  things  which  will  give  him  a  bad  name 
in  order  that  he  may  be  treated  with  obloquy.  This, 
combined  with  every  form  of  asceticism  and  self-in- 
flicted suffering,  is  supposed  to  be  efficacious  for  bring- 
ing the  soul  to  a  state  in  which  it  may  lose  itself  in 
God — understanding,  knowing,  willing,  and  loving,  not 

^  On  one  occasion  this  upward  tendency  seized  upon  Teresa  when 
bhe  was  in  church  and  while  a  sermon  was  being  preached.  She  could 
not  keep  herself  down,  and  the  nuns  had  to  hold  her  down  by  main  force. 


432        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

by  its  own  power,  but  by  a  divine  comprehension, 
knowledge,  will,  and  affection.  The  senses  have  first 
to  be  conquered  by  asceticism.  Next,  the  spirit  is  to 
feel  deserted  of  God  and  wrapt  in  darkness.  Then  a 
total  oblivion  and  torpor  is  to  succeed.  After  this  the 
soul  has  reached  its  supernatural  state,  it  is  possessed 
by  God ;  God  henceforth  acts  in  it,  and  it  dwells  in  a 
serenity  of  delight  which  can  no  more  be  disturbed  by 
earthly  things;  what  it  thinks  is  no  longer  its  own 
thought,  what  it  feels  is  no  longer  its  own  feeling.  It 
is  absorbed  in  God.^ 

Juan  carried  out  his  doctrine  of  asceticism  in  his 
own  person  to  the  utmost  and  to  the  last.  He  was  a 
true  man,  if  self-deluded. 

Nearly  three  hundred  mystical  and  ascetical  writers 
are  counted  as  her  own  by  Spain,  for  mysticism  was 
the  resource  of  souls  which  must  be  religious  but  could 
not  descend  to  the  brutality  of  the  Inquisition  or  the 
craftiness  of  Jesuitism.  One  of  these  was  Luis  de 
Granada,  who  had  more  sobriety  than  Teresa  or  Juan, 
and  tempered  their  sublime  selfishness  with  regard  for 
his  neighbour.  He  was  born  in  Granada  rather  before 
Teresa,  in  the  year  1504,  and  joined  the  Dominicans  in 
that  city.  In  1529  he  became  a  member  of  the  College 
of  S.  Gregory  at  Valladolid,  which  gave  him  time  for 
the  study  of  mystical  theology  and  the  practice  of 
asceticism.  His  nightly  penances  were  such  that  the 
passers-by  in  the  street  stood  in  amazement  at  hearing 
the  blows  with  which  he  disciplined  himself  and  the 
groans  with  which  he  confessed  his  sinfulness.     The 

^  S.  Terci^a's  chief  mystical  treatises  arc  called  "The  Way  of  Perfec- 
tion "  and  "  The  Castle  of  tlie  Soul ;  "  Juan  of  the  Cross's,  '*  The  Ob- 
scure Nitrht"  and  "The  Ascent  of  Carmel." 


THE  SPANISH  MYSTICS.  433 

book  that  he  took  for  his  special  study  was  "  The  Book 
of  Wisdom/'  a  treatise  written  by  an  Alexandrian  Jew 
belonging  to  that  Neo-Platonic  School  which  was  the 
parent  of  mysticism.  On  his  return  to  Granada  he 
became  a  great  preacher.  When  he  was  forty  years 
of  age  he  was  sent  by  the  Dominican  General  to  restore 
the  Convent  of  Scala-Coeli,  which  had  fallen  into  entire 
decay  and  consisted  only  of  ruins.  While  there,  he 
wrote  his  book  on  meditation  and  prayer  sitting  by  the 
side  of  a  mountain  torrent  on  a  broken  rock.  By  his 
influence  he  rebuilt  and  repeopled  the  convent,  and  at 
the  end  of  eight  years  was  appointed  chaplain  and 
preacher  to  the  Duke  of  Medina-Sidonia.  While  hold- 
ing this  office  he  collected  alms  for  building  a  convent 
at  Badajos,  and  when  that  work  was  finished  he  pro- 
ceeded to  Lisbon  at  the  invitation  of  Cardinal  Henri- 
que, who  afterwards  became  King  of  Portugal.  Fray 
Luis  became  provincial  of  the  Dominican  Order  in 
Portugal,  refusing  the  Archbishopric  of  Braga,  which 
was  pressed  upon  him  by  the  regent.  Queen  CataHna. 
In  his  old  age  he  was  deceived  by  the  imposture  of  the 
prioress  of  the  Convent  of  the  Anunciada  at  Lisbon, 
who  professed  to  bear  the  marks  of  the  five  wounds, 
to  receive  manifold  revelations,  to  be  surrounded  by 
supernatural  light,  and,  like  Teresa,  to  be  suspended 
in  the  air.  The  prioress  might  have  made  good  her 
claim  to  be  an  instrument  for  reveaUng  the  Divine 
Will  if  she  had  not  interfered  in  politics ;  but  she  took 
the  side  of  the  House  of  Braganza,  and  this  led  to  an 
examination  of  the  reality  of  her  supernatural  gifts, 
ordered  by  the  inquisitor-general  of  the  kingdom,  and 
conducted  by  a  commission  consisting  of  four  ecclesi- 
astics and  two  laymen.      Their  report  was,  that  the 


434        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

whole  matter  was  a  clumsy  deception,  supported  only 
by  fanaticism  and  superstition.  In  the  last  sermon 
that  he  preached  Fray  Luis  confessed  that  he  had  been 
deceived  in  her.     In  1558  he  died. 

He  was  a  voluminous  writer,  and  to  this  day  his 
works  are  read  and  studied,  and,  happily  for  Spain, 
they  are  reproduced  in  the  pulpit.  Some  bishops 
require  their  clergy  to  provide  themselves  with  them. 
He  differs  from  most  Spanish  devotional  writers  in  this, 
that  he  leads  by  love  and  not  by  fear.  Instead  of 
frightful  visions  of  hell  and  purgatory,  he  would  have 
his  reader  meditate  on  our  Lord's  life  of  love  and 
suffering;  and  instead  of  referring  him  to  endless 
mediators,  he  brings  him  to  the  foot  of  the  Cross. 

Was  the  reformation  in  morals  and  spirituality  of 
life  which  was  attempted  not  without  success  by  Teresa 
and  other  devoted  men  and  women  within  the  Church 
of  Spain  an  adequate  substitute  for  that  reformation  in 
faith  which  was  crushed  by  the  Inquisition  in  1559- 
1 570  ?  History  shows  that  it  was  not.  Ximenes'  refor- 
mation of  morals  in  the  fifteenth  century  was  effaced 
after  the  lapse  of  a  very  short  time,  and  laxity  and 
worldliness,  again  become  dominant  in  their  old  forms, 
were  not  to  be  restrained  by  the  passive  discourage- 
ment offered  them  by  the  piety  of  mystic  dreamers, 
absorbed  for  the  most  part  in  a  conflict,  real  or  imagi- 
nary, with  self.  Spain,  like  France,  refused  to  tolerate 
Protestantism,  and  like  France,  and  in  the  wake  of 
France,  it  had  in  consequence  to  go  through  the  fiery 
trial  of  unbelief,  concealed  under  the  specious  names 
of  liberalism  and  philosophy. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

THE  BOURBONS  IN  SPAIN. 

Charles  V.  and  Philip  II.  found  the  Spaniards  strong 
with  the  strength  which  liberty  gives  to  a  people. 
This  strength  they  concentrated  and  focussed  by  means 
of  the  despotism  which  Charles  introduced  and  Philip 
converted  into  an  absolute  autocracy;  but  with  the 
children  of  the  generation  which  had  been  free  there 
perished  the  energy  and  high  spirit  which  make  nations 
great.  The  reigns  of  Philip  III.,  Philip  IV.,  and  Carlos 
II.  were  periods  of  unbroken  decline  and  swift  decay, 
though  the  age  of  PhiHp  III.  and  Philip  IV.  was  illu- 
mined by  the  outburst  of  genius  exhibited  by  Lope  de 
Vega  and  Calderon  in  the  drama,  and  of  Cervantes  in 
his  immortal  romance.  The  accession  of  the  House  of 
Bourbon  in  the  person  of  Philip  V.  was  a  change  for 
the  better  from  the  imbecility  of  Carlos  II.i  But  Louis 
XIV.  had  given  to  his  grandson  advice  to  maintain  the 
Inquisition  in  full  force,  and  to  resist  all  endeavours  to 
repress  or  reform  it.  There  were,  it  was  true,  no  Pro- 
testants ;  they  had  all  been  burnt  or  driven  into  con- 
formity. The  Holy  Office  fell  once  more  upon  the  Jews 
and  upon  the  Freemasons,  who  had  been  excommuni- 
cated by  Clement  XII.  in  1738.     Seven  hundred  and 

^  The  bride  of  Carlos  II.  was  welcomed  to  Spain  by  a  grand  aufo- 
da-feoi  1 18  victims.  Philip  declined  to  have  his  accession  honoured 
in  the  same  fashion. 

433  2    F 


436        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

eighty-two  aiitos-da-fc  were  held  during  Pliilip's  reign, 
and  an  average  of  thirty-four  persons  were  burnt  to 
death  every  year,  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  degraded 
and  ruined.  Nevertheless,  the  French  king  had  brought 
French  ideas  with  him.  French  literature  spread  in 
Spain,  and,  for  the  first  time,  liberaHsm  entered  the 
Peninsula.  In  the  reign  of  Fernando  VI.,  stiU  more 
in  that  of  Carlos  III.,  liberalism  was  countenanced  by 
the  Court.  Carlos  III.  surrounded  himself  with  liberal 
ministers — D'Aranda,  who  not  only  inaugurated  a  reform 
of  monastic  bodies,  restricted  the  privileges  of  sanc- 
tuary, and  forbade  daily  religious  processions,  but  dared 
to  order  the  once  terrible  Inquisition  to  confine  itself  to 
its  proper  work,  and  to  imprison  innocent  subjects  of 
the  Crown  at  its  peril ;  who  even  attempted,  though  un- 
successfully, to  deprive  the  Holy  Office  of  the  right  of 
confiscating  and  appropriating  to  its  own  use  the  goods 
of  persons  accused  before  it,  and  who,  besides  this,  was 
the  author  of  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits ;  and  Florida- 
blanca,  who  went  still  further  in  the  matter  of  the  Inqui- 
sition, forbidding  it  to  prosecute  any  acting  servant  of 
the  Crown  without  the  king's  permission.  In  this  reign 
men  who  had  the  reputation  of  being  Jansenists  were 
appointed  bishops.  Aguiriano,  Canon  of  Calahorra, 
went  so  far  as  to  defend  the  Church  of  Utrecht.  In 
such  an  atmosphere  the  power  of  the  Inquisition  almost 
ceased,  partly  for  want  of  the  support  of  the  Crown, 
partly  on  account  of  the  difference  between  sceptics 
and  Protestants.  Protestants  opposed  a  resistance  to 
the  Holy  Office,  and  died  for  their  faith,  but  sceptics, 
as  soon  as  they  were  examined,  professed  themselves 
perfectly  orthodox,  and  were  ready  to  accept  any 
dogmas  imposed  upon  them.     No  philosopher  allowed 


THE  BOURBONS  IN  SPAIN.  437 

himself  to  be  burnt,  and  only  one  subjected  himself  to 
the  other  penalties  of  an  aiito-da-fe.  The  French  Revo- 
lution, which  burst  out  in  the  reign  of  Carlos,  drove 
the  Court  out  of  its  dilettante  toying  with  liberalism, 
though  it  inspired  it  with  no  firmness.  Jansenism 
continued  to  maintain  itself  in  Madrid,  where  it  had  a 
centre  in  the  house  of  the  Countess  of  Montijo,  but  the 
Court  gravitated  back  towards  the  system  of  PhiHp  II. ^ 
When  Napoleon  made  his  invasion  of  the  Peninsula 
in  1 807,  and  beguiled  Carlos  and  his  son  Fernando  into 
delivering  up  the  Spanish  crown,  which  he  bestowed  on 
his  brother  Joseph,  a  coalition  was  formed  between  the 
democracy  and  the  Church  of  Spain  to  resist  the  French 
invaders.  The  monarchs  had  succumbed,  the  grandees 
were  ready  to  submit,  but  the  people  fought  for  the 
liberty  and  independence  of  the  nation,  and  the  Church 
for  the  defence  of  its  faith  against  French  atheism,  and 
for  the  maintenance  of  its  position  as  a  political  and 
social  element  in  the  country.  Everywhere  the  priests 
and  the  people  sprang  to  arms.  The  Constitution  of  1 8 1 2, 
drawn  up  by  the  Cortes  of  Cadiz,  was  based  on  the  two 
principles  of  a  democracy  which  declared  the  supreme 
sovereignty  to  reside  in  the  nation,  and  of  a  religious 
sentiment  which  recognised  the  Roman  Catholic  faith 
as  the  sole  religion  of  the  State.  The  two  forces  re- 
presented by  the  priests  and  the  people,  acted  together 
as  long  as  their  interests  appeared  identical,  but  their 
union  was  not  destined  to  last.  The  popular  party 
insisted  on  the  abolition  of  the  Inquisition,  and  in  181 3 
solemnly  declared  its  existence  to  be  incompatible  with 

^  Jovellanos,  who,  as  Secretary  of  State,  had  sought  to  reform  the 
procedure  of  the  Holy  Office,  was  banished  to  Majorca.  The  ten  chief 
booksellers  of  Valladolid  were  fined,  imprisoned,  and  dismissed  from  the 
city  in  1799  for  selling  books  prohibited  by  the  Inquisition. 


438        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN, 

the  Constitution,  in  spite  of  the  resistance  of  the  clergy 
and  of  the  Papal  nuncio.  Suppressed,  it  was  restored 
again  on  Fernando's  accession  in  1814,^  and  it  was 
not  till  after  a  severe  struggle  between  the  king  and 
the  people  that  it  was  once  more,  and  finally,  abolished 
in  the  year  1820.^  The  last  burning  at  the  stake  took 
place  in  Seville  in  1781,  but  not  the  last  execution  for 
supposed  heresy.  The  Bishops  of  Tarragona,  Valencia, 
and  Orihuela  having  re-established  the  Inquisition  in 
their  dioceses  under  the  name  of  Junta  de  la  Fe,  the 
Junta  de  la  Fe  of  Valencia  brought  to  trial  a  school- 
master, Cayetano  Ripoll,  on  the  grounds  that  he  taught 
only  the  Ten  Commandments  in  his  school  (omitting  the 
Ave  Maria,  &c.),  that  he  did  not  go  to  Mass,  and  did 
not  kneel  as  the  Host  went  by.  He  was  condemned  to 
be  hanged  and  burnt  as  a  persistent  and  perfect  heretic, 
and  his  goods  were  ordered  to  be  confiscated.  He  was 
hanged  in  Valencia,  July  31,  1826,  but  not  burnt. 

The  fall  of  the  monasteries  followed  that  of  the 
Inquisition.  Joseph  Bonaparte  began  alienating  their 
enormous  possessions,  the  retention  of  which  in  mort- 
main had  been  shown  by  Campomanes,  Floridablanca, 
and  Jovellanos  to  be  incompatible  with  national  pros- 
perity. The  Cortes  of  Cadiz  in  181 3  proceeded  cau- 
tiously in  the  same  course,  but  Fernando's  return  in 
1 8 14  brought  everything  to  a  standstill.  More  sweep- 
ing measures  were  adopted  in  1820,  when  the  Govern- 

1  Fernando  VII.,  set  upon  his  throne  by  English  arms,  declared  in 
his  royal  decree  of  1814  that  the  re-establishment  of  the  Inquisition 
had  for  its  object  the  reparation  of  the  evils  caused  to  the  religion  of 
the  State  by  the  foreign  Uoops  who  were  not  Catholics,  and  to  preserve 
Spain  from  interior  dissension  and  from  the  contagion  of  the  heresy 
and  errors  that  had  desolated  other  countries. 

2  Four  years  only  before  its  final  abolition— in  1816 — the  Pope  forbade 
the  use  of  torture  by  the  Holy  Office. 


THE  BOURBONS  IN  SPAIN,  439 

ment  suppressed  most  of  the  convents  and  guaranteed 
security  of  possession  to  all  purchasers  of  monastic 
property.  But  in  1823,  Fernando,  having  overthrown 
the  Constitution  which  he  had  sworn  to  maintain 
and  once  more  made  himself  despotic,  compelled  the 
purchasers  to  restore  to  the  monks  without  compen- 
sation the  property  that  they  had  bought  under  the 
Government  guarantee,  and  reopened  the  houses  that 
had  been  closed.  When  the  wheel  came  round  again 
in  1835,  a  royal  decree,  issued  by  Mendizabal,  and 
confirmed  next  year  by  the  Cortes,  suppressed  all 
convents,  colleges,  and  communities  of  monks  except 
those  of  the  Escuelas  Pias  and  of  S.  Juan  de  Dios  (which 
employed  themselves  in  teaching  and  nursing)  and  a 
few  missionary  colleges,  closed  all  nunneries  where  the 
numbers  were  less  than  twelve,  forbade  the  admission 
of  novices,  and  prohibited  rehgious  vows.  The  exclaus- 
tradosy  numbering  about  fifty  thousand,  had  a  certain 
pension  assigned  them  out  of  the  proceeds  of  the  sale 
of  conventual  property,  and  many  of  them  became 
secular  priests.  They  had  lost  public  respect,  and  they 
passed  away  as  a  body  unregretted  and  without  loss 
to  the  nation. 

Fernando's  one  object  was  to  make  himself  a  despot, 
and  in  this,  with  the  help  of  the  clergy  and  the  nobles, 
he  succeeded.  On  his  death,  in  1833,  his  widow.  Queen 
Cristina,  who  became  regent  for  her  infant  child  Isabel, 
was  constrained  by  circumstances,  against  her  will,  to 
throw  herself  into  the  arms  of  the  constitutionalists,  in 
opposition  to  her  husband's  brother,  Don  Carlos,  who 
rallied  around  him  the  party  of  absolutism.  The  sym- 
pathies of  the  Roman  Catholic  party  in  Spain  there- 
upon passed  to  the  Carlists,  but  as  success  smiled  upon 


440        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

the  constitutionalists,  it  accepted  the  de  facto  Govern- 
ment, and  has  supported  the  Moderados  against  the 
Progresistas.     At  times,  however,  it  has  been  dif^cult 
on  both  sides   for  the  Church  and  the  State  to  co- 
operate or  act  in  concert  together.     This  was  the  case 
in   the   later   years   of  the   regency   of  Cristina   and 
still  more  during  the  regency  of  Espartero,  who  suc- 
ceeded her  in  1840.     So  great  was  then  the  strain  be- 
tween Church  and  State  that  upwards  of  thirty  dioceses 
were  without  bishops,  the  Pope  refusing  to  accept  the 
nominees  of  Government,  and  the  Government  refusing 
to  nominate  men  acceptable  to  the  Pope.    The  struggle 
at  Malaga  may  serve  as  an  example  of  what  took  place 
elsewhere.     On  the  death  of  the  bishop  the  Govern- 
ment  appointed    Manuel    Ventura    Gomez    as   vicar- 
capitular,  with  jurisdiction  over  the  diocese  during  the 
vacancy  of  the  See.     He  resigned  this  office  in  1837, 
having  been  nominated  to  a  bishopric  elsewhere  by  the 
Government.     The  Chapter  was  ordered  to  elect  in  his 
place  Dr.  Valentine  Ortigosa,  whom  the  Government 
designated  also  as  bishop  of  the  See.    The  new  bishop- 
designate   began   by   denying   the  necessity   of  Papal 
confirmation  for  a  bishop,  and  granted  a  dispensation 
in  a  case  which  by  Roman  Catholic  law  was  confined  to 
the  Pontiff.     In  an  address  to  the  Chapter  he  lamented 
the  degradation  of  the  modern  Episcopate,  and  urged 
the  restoration  of  the  independence  that  it  enjoyed  in 
the  primitive  Church,  professing  himself  to  be  actuated 
''by  the   spirit  neither  of  the  Ultramontane  nor  the 
Cisalpine  school,  neither  by  unpractical  philosophical 
Jansenism,  nor  by  abominable,  gross,  and  hypocritical 
Jesuitism."      Ortigosa   was    denounced    to    the  Arch- 
bishop of  Seville,  his   metropolitan,  as   heretical,   but 


THE  BOURBONS  IN  SPAIN.  441 

the  civil  power  forbade  the  trial,  and  he  continued  to 
hold  office.  Pope  Gregory  XVI.  attacked  him  in  an 
address  to  the  cardinals  at  Rome.  Ortigosa  pub- 
lished an  answer,  affecting  to  beheve  that  the  Pope's 
address  was  a  forgery,  but  citing  him,  if  it  were 
genuine,  to  appear  before  the  judgment-seat  of  God 
and  answer  for  his  injustice.  Ortigosa  retained  his 
position  as  vicar-capitular  and  bishop-designate  till 
the  overthrow  of  Espartero  in  1843,  when  the  new 
Government  removed  him.  Throughout  the  diocese 
of  Guadix  a  protest  against  the  Pope's  allocution  was 
read  in  the  churches  on  three  successive  Sundays  by 
order  of  the  civil  governor,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of 
the  vicar-capitular.  Such  scenes  were  taking  place  in 
diocese  after  diocese;^  but  when  Espartero's  regency 
came  to  an  end  more  peaceful  relations  between  the 
secular  and  ecclesiastical  authorities  ensued.  Isabel 
became  queen  in  1 843,  and  under  her  the  Court  went 
back  to  its  normal  state  of  immorality  and  ^'clericalism," 
or  rather  to  such  an  approach  to  both  as  the  times  and 
pubHc  opinion  would  allow,^  while  the  strong  hand  of 
Narvaez  and  the  vigour  of  O'Donnell  for  a  time  kept 
back  insurrection.^ 

A  confiscation  of  Church  property  had  been  heralded 
by  Jovellanos  in  a  royal  decree  of  1798,  which  ordered 

1  See  Cardinal  Wiseman's  account  of  Spain  in  No.  48,  Dzario  di 
Roma^  1847,  and  an  article  by  the  same  writer  in  the  Dublin  Review. 

2  "  In  the  corrupt  surroundings  of  the  Spanish  Court  we  can  scarcely 
be  surprised  that  the  queen's  manner  of  life  became  the  scandal  of 
Madrid  and  of  all  Europe"  (Field,  Old  and  New  Spain,  p.  154).  At 
the  same  time  "she  was  completely  under  the  control  of  the  priests" 
(Ibid.,  p.  156). 

3  "  Narvaez,  on  his  deathbed,  being  asked  if  he  forgave  his  enemies, 
naively  replied  that  he  did  not  think  there  were  any  left"  (Ibid., 
P-  155)- 


442        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

the  sale  of  lands  belonging  to  hospitals  and  brother- 
hoods, and  the  investment  of  the  amount  realised  in 
the  pubHc  funds  for  the  benefit  of  those  institutions. 
In  1820  the  Cortes  forbade  the  acquisition  of  real 
property  by  ecclesiastical  bodies,  appropriated  all  glebe 
lands  to  the  State,  and  abolished  tithes,  substituting  a 
tax  por  ailto  y  clero,  for  the  maintenance  of  the  clergy, 
of  which,  however,  a  considerable  part  failed  to  reach 
its  intended  objects.  In  1850  this  tax  amounted  to 
;^2,ooo,ooo;  in  1890,  to  41,304,133  pesetas,  equal  to 
about  ;^ 1, 600,000.  Out  of  it  the  Government  pays  the 
archbishops  and  bishops,  the  cathedral  dignitaries,  the 
parish  clergy,  and  all  the  expenses  connected  with  keep- 
ing up  public  worship  and  maintaining  diocesan  semi- 
naries. In  return  all  church  buildings  are  regarded  as 
the  property  of  the  State.  The  effect  of  this  measure, 
confirmed  in  1835,  has  been  enormous.  Toledo  was 
the  richest  See  in  the  world  after  that  of  Rome,  but  the 
income  fixed  for  the  archbishop  by  the  concordat  of 
1 85 1  is  only  ;^i6oo  a  year.  The  stipend  of  a  cura, 
once  very  high,  now  ranges  from  ;^  100  to  ;^30.  By  the 
same  concordat  a  rearrangement  of  the  bishoprics  was 
made,  there  being  now  nine  archbishops  and  forty- 
eight  bishops  in  place  of  eight  archbishops  and  fifty- 
two  bishops.  The  bishops  are  nominated  by  the 
Government  and  confirmed  by  the  Pope.  For  a  parish 
cure  three  names  are  submitted  by  the  bishop  to  the 
Government,  which  selects  one  of  the  three.  Canons 
are  nominated  alternately  by  the  Crown  and  the  bishop. 
The  archbishops  have  a  seat  in  the  Senate,  and  each 
province  elects  a  senator,  who  is  usually  one  of  the 
bishops.  Ecclesiastics  cannot  sit  in  Congress.  In 
1 85 1   the   admission  of  the  Orders  of  S.  Vincent  de 


THE  BOURBONS  IN  SPAIN.  443 

Paul  and  S.  Philip  Neri  was  sanctioned,  in  addition 
to  those  of  the  Escuelas  Pias  and  S.  Juan  de  Dios,  and 
nuns  were  allowed,  provided  they  did  not  exceed  the 
number  of  21,500  for  all  Spain.  Thus  a  way  was 
opened  for  the  general  reintroduction  of  monastic  in- 
stitutions, which  are  tolerated  everywhere,  but,  having 
no  legal  right  of  existence,  may  be  abolished  by  a 
hostile  Ministry  without  consulting  Cortes. 

The  present  state  of  things  is  as  follows : — An  im- 
poverished and  languid  Church  is  supported  by  the 
nobility  and  by  statesmen  as  a  political  instrument,  but 
it  has  lost  its  hold  on  the  middle  classes  and  the  shop- 
keepers, who  are  given  over  to  scepticism  and  unbelief. 
Yet  it  is  still  an  object  of  affection  to  the  great  majority 
of  the  peasantry,  who  believe  whatever  they  are  taught 
by  their  priests  with  a  faith  that  is  touching  in  its  sim- 
plicity. The  bishops  and  clergy  have  lost  both  the  vices 
and  the  merits  which  belonged  to  them  as  members  of 
a  wealthy  and  turbulent  aristocracy,  but  the  compul- 
sory discipline  of  a  universal  celibacy  still  bears  its  evil 
fruits  as  of  old.  Among  the  laity  the  philosophy  in- 
troduced from  France  contends  with  the  inherited 
reverence  for  the  priesthood,  and  leads  men  to  dis- 
believe the  doctrines  of  their  Church,  but  to  refrain 
from  formally  breaking  away  from  her.  Only  one 
voice  was  lifted  among  Spanish  ecclesiastics  against 
^  the  dogma  of  the  Immaculate  Conception,^  and  at  the 
Vatican  Council  there  was  not  one  bishop  to  show  the 
courage  exhibited  by  the  representatives  of  Spain  at 

^  Examen  Bullae  Ineffabilis  institutum  et  concinnatum  juxta  regulas 
sanioris  Theologise,  a  Fratre  Braulio  Morgaez,  Professore  Sacrae  Theo- 
logise  in  Ordine  Pisedicatorum  et  in  Universitate  Complutensi.  Paris  : 
Huet,  1858.  The  brave  Dominican,  for  maintaining  the  doctrine  of  his 
Order,  was  thrown  into  prison  and  shut  up  in  a  madhouse. 


444        HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SPAIN. 

Trent.  The  Protestantism  which  appeared,  but  ap- 
peared only,  to  have  been  burnt  out  of  the  land  in  the 
year  1570,  lifted  up  its  head  again  as  soon  as  it  was  safe 
for  men  to  profess  that  which  really  they  believed.  As 
early  as  1850  a  canon  of  a  cathedral  in  the  south  of 
Spain  appealed  to  members  of  the  English  Church  for 
assistance  in  reforming  the  Church  to  which  he  be- 
longed.^ But  it  was  not  till  1868,  when  General  Prim's 
revolution  took  place,  that  men  dared  to  openly  sepa- 
rate themselves  from  the  National  Church. 

The  second  article  of  the  Constitution  of  1868  de- 
clares that  "  no  person  shall  be  molested  in  the  territory 
of  Spain  for  his  religious  opinions,  nor  for  the  exercise 
of  his  particular  worship,  saving  the  respect  due 
to  Christian  morality."  But  this  clause  is  at  once 
quahfied  by  the  succeeding  clause : — "  Nevertheless,  no 
other  ceremonies  nor  manifestations  in  public  will  be 
permitted  than  those  of  the  religion  of  the  State  " — which 
is  ''  the  Catholic  Apostolic   Roman   religion."     These 

1  "  You  will  find  my  profession  of  faith,  to  the  letter,  in  the  Apoitles' 
and  the  Constantinopolitan  Creeds.  .  .  .  This  was  ever  my  thought 
from  the  time  that  I  once  recognised  the  true  faith  of  Christ,  to  place 
it  under  the  powerful  shadow  and  protection  of  the  Anglican  Church, 
that,  strengthened  by  so  great  a  support  and  led  by  so  great  a  light,  it 
might  be  propagated  through  the  Spanish  territory  and  bring  forth 
fruit  most  abundantly.  .  ,  The  true  and  genuine  Gospel  of  Christ 
cannot  be  preached  in  Spain,  but  the  Gospel  of  the  Pope,  which  is  a 
very  different  thing.  The  Spaniards,  having  this  before  their  eyes, 
laugh  at  the  mission  of  the  Christian  priesthood,  are  losing  faith  and 
morals,  and  sinking  into  atheism.  .  .  .  Will  you,  then,  associate  your- 
selves together  for  the  work  of  the  Gospel  in  these  regions  ?  Will  you, 
in  your  charity,  lead  this  people  to  the  true  faith  of  Christ  ?  Will  you 
recall  them  from  atheism  and  indifferentism  to  the  Church  of  God? 
You  who  profess  the  true  faith  of  Christ,  will  you  leave  a  thirsty  people 
to  perish,  and  give  them  nought  out  of  your  abundance  when  they  ask? 
,  .  .  Your  brethren  in  captivity  salute  you  and  the  holy  Anglican  Church 
of  God  "  (Letter  to  the  English  chaplain  at  Gibraltar  in  1850,  quoted 
in  the  Practical  Working  of  the  Church  of  Spain  ;  London,  1851). 


THE  BOURBONS  IN  SPAIN.  445 

two  clauses  enable  both  the  political  parties  in  the 
State  to  declare  the  Constitution  to  be  on  their  side, 
whether  Progresistas  demand  toleration  in  the  Cortes, 
or  Moderados  permit  the  practice  of  petty  persecu- 
tion throughout  the  country.  The  quarrel  between 
them  will  have  to  be  settled  by  the  growth  of  pubHc 
opinion  in  favour  of  liberty,  or  a  frank  return  to  the 
sentiments  of  Torquemada  and  Loyola.  There  are  now 
about  10,000  persons  in  the  Peninsula  who  profess 
themselves  Protestants.  They  are  separated  from  the 
doctrine  and  fellowship  of  the  Church  introduced  into 
Spain  in  the  eleventh  century,  but  it  will  be  their 
own  fault  if  they  do  not  show  themselves  to  be  truer 
representatives  of  the  old  Spanish  Church,  the  Church 
of  Hosius  and  of  the  Goths,  than  their  rivals,  whose 
fathers  burnt  their  fathers.  They  have  a  spiritual 
ancestry  of  which  they  need  not  be  ashamed,  running 
back  not  only  to  the  autos-da-fe  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, but  to  the  first  ages  of  the  Christianity  of  Spain ; 
and  if  they  are  careful  to  show  that  their  faith  is  the 
faith  of  S.  Paul  and  of  the  primitive  Church,  a  great 
future  may  await  them.  Whether,  through  the  working 
of  the  Spirit  of  God,  the  dominant  Church  may  at  last 
shake  off  its  long  torpor  and  rise  to  its  responsibilities, 
has  yet  to  be  seen.  Some  indications  seem  to  point  in 
that  direction. 


INDEX. 


Abderrahman  I. 

II. 

Ill 

Adoptionistn 
Adrian  I.,  P.  . 
Alani,  the  .  . 
Almanzor  .  . 
Almohades,  the 
Almoravides,  the 
Alonzo  II.,  K. 

„      III.,  K. 

„      VI.,  K. 


PAGE 
226,   248 

•  .       275 

•  •  252 
.  .  232 
.  .  231 
.114,   118 

7,  254-257 
.    .    295 

•  .    294 
4,  236-238 

•  7.  24s 
292,  303,  310. 

345.  348 
.    .311,328 
262,  264.  266 
I,  96,  97,  109 


„      VII..  K 

Alvar  .     .     . 
Ambrose,  S. 

Arbues 368 

Argimund,  D 153 

Arias,  Garcia  de,  M.  .     .     .     3S7 

Ascanius 112 

Ataulphus 117 

Athanasius  and  Theodore  .  12 
Augustin,  S.  .  53,  82,  100,  109 
Aurelius  and  Sabigotho  272,  289 
Autos-da-fe,  380-388,  391-394, 
401,  407 

Basilides  and  Martial,  B.    .     25 

Benedict  IL,  P I97 

Berbers,  the  ...  221,  224 
Bernard,  Abp.  ...  195,  332 
Bohorques,  Juana,  M.  .  .  389 
Bonaparte,  Joseph,  K.  .  437,  438 
Borgia,  Francisco  de  .  .  .  425 
Braga,  first  Council  of    .     .     103 


PAGE 

Calatrava,  Order  of  .    .     359 

Calixtus  IL,  P 327 

Cano,  Melchior,  B.  .  392,  404 
Canons,  Code  of    .     .     .     .     177 

Carillo,  Abp 373 

Carlos,  Don       .     .   392,  397-400 

Carlos  II.,  K 435 

„      III.,  K.      .     .     .419,436 

,,       Don,  Pretender    .     .     439 

Carranza,  Abp.       .     .     .  394-397 

Cassian,  M 37 

Catalonia 228 

Cazalla,  Augustin,  M.  .  .  391 
Celibacy  .  .  59,151,159,218 
Charles  V.,  E.    .     .     .      377,  380 

Chintila,  K .     180 

Cid,  the '.     .     292 

Claudius  of  Turin,  B.  .  .  247 
Clavijo,  battle  of   .     .     .  240-244 

Clement  XIV.,  P 420 

Clotilda,  Q 121 

Columba,  M 276 

Compostela  .     .  4,  237,  242,  245, 
256,  302,  339 


Concordat  of  1 85 1 
Constantine,  Emperor 
Constantine,  usurper  . 
Constantius  Chlorus  . 
Cordova  ....    249 
Cordovan  martyrs,  the 
Crusade,  the  Bull  of  the 
Cyprian,  S 


.  442 
.  66 
=  115 
•  41 
290-292 
.  265 
.  296 
26,  108 


Dacian   .    . 
Damasus,  P. 


...       43 
.  82,  96,  109 


4t8 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Deza 370 

Diocletian,  E 40-43 

Dioecesan  churches     .     .     .     107 
Dominic,  S 362 

Egica,  K 198-202 

Egidius,  M 381 

Egila,  B 281 

Elipandus,  B 231 

Elvira  or  Illiberis  .  .  .  55-64 
Emetherius      and       Cheli- 

donius,  M 38 

Engracias,  M 44 

Erwig,  K.      ...    172,  192-198 

Escobar 413 

Espartero 34,  440 

Espinosa,  C 398,  400 

Eulalia,  M 46-48 

Eulogius,  M.  .  .  264,  280-283 
Euric,  K 119 

False  Decretals,  the,  178,  303 

Faustus,  M 45 

Felix  of  Urgel,  B.       ...     233 

Fernando  III.,  K 364 

„         VII.,  K.    422,  438-439 
Fernando  and  Isabel  .     .  365,  368 

Filioqtie 1 54-158 

Fita,  Padre,  SJ 11 

Flora  and  Maria,  M.  .  .  .  271 
Florence  of  Merida  ...  77 
Franks,  the  .  .  113,  123,  207 
Fructuosus,  M.  .  .  .  28-32,  308 
Fuente,  Const.  Ponce  de  la, 

^f 383-385 

Fulgentius,  B 166 

Galerius,  E 41 

Gelmirez,  B.  and  Abp.,  8,  305-338 
Gerard,  Canon  ....  307,  327 

Goths,  the 117,  121 

Gratian  and  Valentinian,  E.  109 
Gregory  I.,  P 165 

„      VII.,  P.  .   .   .345-351 

,,         of  Elvira  ....       76 
Gundemar,  K 162-164 


PAGE 

Henry  IV.,  K 353 

Henrique,  C.  and  K.       .     .     414 
Hermenigild      ....  127-131 

Hermanric    „ 117 

Hernandez,  M 383 

Herrezuelo,  Leonora,  M.      .     393 

Hilarius no 

Himerius no 

Historia  Compostellana  .    2,  6,  7, 

307-338 
Hosius,  B.     .     .    65-75,  108,  176 

Hostegesis,  B 285 

Hugo,  Aden,  and  B.  .     .  307,  328 
Hugo,  Candidus,  Card.  .  344,  347 

Iago,  S.,  Order  of     .     .     .     359 

Ildefonso,  B 184 

Immaculate  Conception,  the,  411, 
412 

Ingunthis,  Q 126 

Inquisition,  the,  in  America     408 
,,  in  army  and  navy  416 

,,  in  France      .     .     361 

,,  in  India   .     .     .     407 

,,  in  Italy    .     .363,416 

,,  in  Portugal  .     .     416 

,,  in  Spain  .     .  363-411 

Isabel  II.,  Q 439-441 

Isidore,  B.     .     .    i,  166,  180-199 


James,  S.,  the  Greater  i 
236-247, 
James,  S.,  the  Less  .  . 
Jayme  of  Aragon,  K. 
Jerome,  S.,  .  .  82,  88, 
Jesuits,  the 


Jev^rs,  persecutions  of 
Joao  VI.,  K.      . 
Jose,  K.    .     .     . 
Jovillanos      .     . 
Juan  de  la  Cruz 
Juan  de  Leon,  M, 
Juana,  Regent  . 
Julian,  Primate   i 
Julian,  Count     . 
Justa  and  Rufina 


75 


68 


92 


,  16,  177, 

299,  320 

.     321 

.    357 

104,  109 
402-422 
-176,223 

.    421 

.  417 
437,  438 
428-432 

.  388 
392,  395 
199,  298 
205,  221 

•      33 


INDEX. 


449 


PAGE 

Justus  and  Pastor  .  .  .  45,  8 1 
Juvencus 84 

KiNDASWINTH,  K.      .      .      .      181 

Leander,  B.   126,  138,  154, 160, 

165, 199 

Leo  L,  P.     .     .     .  loi,  III,  214 

„    II.,  P 196,  214 

„    III.,  P.       ...  4,  157,  237 

,,    XIIL,  P 5-12 

Leocadia,  S 186 

Leocritia,  M 280 

Leon 25,  227,  229 

Leonese    or    new    Spanish 
Church      .     .     .    284,  297-334 

Leovigild,  K 124-142 

Loyola,  Inigo  de  .  .  .  402-409 
Luis  de  Granada    .  428,  432-434 

Luis  de  Leon 428 

Luparia 16 

Marcellus,  M.    .    .    .     .       35 

Maria  I.,  Q 420 

„      II.,  Q 421 

Maria  del  Pilar 13 

Maria,  S.,  and  Ildefonso  .  185 
Marmarica  .  .  .  .2,  177,  237 
Martin,  S.,  of  Tours  ...  97 
Masona,  B.    .    127,  131-137,  I59 

Maximus,  E 91,  97 

Mendoza,  Card,  and  Abp.  .     374 

Migetius 230 

Miguel 421 

Mohammed 219 

Molina 410-41 1 

Molinos 430 

Mozarabic  Liturgy      .      216,  301, 

340-351 
Mozarabs      .    229,  2S3,  301,  334, 

343,  348 
Musa 5,  205,  223 

Napoleon,  E 421,437 

Naivaez 441 

Navarre 227 


Navas  de  Tolosa  . 
Nicsea,  Council  of. 
Nunctus,  Abbot     . 


PAGE 

.     296 

.       66 

137,  141 


Ommiad  Dynasty,  the   .     .     225 

Orosius 100,  104 

Ortigosa,  Dr 440 

Pacian,  B 79 

Paintings  in  churches  .  .  58 
Pallium,  the  .  .  166,  213,  323 
Papal  authority  .  213,  232,  298, 
301,  304,  323,  351,  357 
Papal  Letters    .     .     .     .110,214 

Papal  Vicars 213 

Paul,  S 18-20 

Paulinus  of  Nola,  B.  .     .     .       81 

Paya  y  Rico,  Card.     ...       11 

Pedro  the  Cruel,  K.  .     .     .     355 

„     IV.  of  Aragon,  K.    .     356 

„     I.  of  Portugal,  K.      .     356 

Pedro,  Dom,  E 421 

Pedro  de  Alcantara    .     .     .     426 

Pelaez,  B 8,  303-306 

Pelayo,  K 227 

Perfectus,  M 265 

Philip  II.,  K.     .     .  385,  393,  398, 
412-414,  429,  435 

Philip  v.,  K 418,435 

Pomposa,  M 277 

Portugal,        kingdom      of, 

formed 295,  353 

Potamius,  B 78 

Prim,  General   ....  423,  444 

Priscillian,  B 93 

Protestantism   401,  403,  423,  444 
Prudentius     ....    27,  32,  85 

QuiRicus,  B 188 

Quiroga,  Card.       .     .     .409,410 

Ramiro  I.,  K 238 

Raymond 3^2 

Reccafred,  B 279 

Reccared  I.,  K.      .     .     .143-160 
Kecceswinth,  K.     .     .     .  171,  183 


45© 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Rekiar,  K 119 

Ripoll,  M 438 

Roderic,  K 206,  222 

Roncesvalles 228 

Roxas,  Dominic  de,  M.  .     .     390 
Royal  supremacy  .     .     .209,212 

Samson,  Abbot     ....     286 

San-Roman,  M 390 

Sardica,  Council  of    .     .      71-74 

Sebastian,  K 413,  414 

Servandus,  Count  ....     285 
Seso,  Carlos  de,  M.     ...     394 

Seven,  the 15 

Siricius,  P no 

Spanish  historical  periods    .       23 
Spanish  provinces  20,  69,  107,  163 

Stephen,  P 26 

Stukely 404 

Suevi,  the     .      114-119,120,128 
Sunna,  B I33 

Talavera,    Fernando    de, 

Abp 275 

Tarik 205 

Templars,  the 361 

Teresa,  S 424-429 

Theodomir,  B.  .     .     .     4)  5>  236 

K 127 

„  Abbot     ...     248 

„  of  Murcia     .     .     222 

Tlieodosius  I.,  E 89 


PAGE 

Tillemont 13 

Toledo,  Councils  of   .     .  202,  209 
„   I.     .     .     102 

»       „  ni.  143-158 

„  lY.  .  167-171 

„       See  of  .     .  161,  164,  181, 

183,  193-198,  339 

Torture 383 

Turribius loi,  in 


Ulphilas,  B. 
Urraca,  Q.     . 


...     121 

310-317,  320 


Valdes,  B 385,  394 

Valero,  Rodrigo  de,  M.  .     .     381 

Valladolid 390-394 

Vandals,  the      ....  112-116 

Vendome,  Card 415 

Vibero,  Leonora  de    .     .391,  392 

Vigilantius 82 

Vincent,  M 49^54 

Wamba,  K 188 

Witiza,  K 204 

Xavier,  Francisco     .     .403-408 

Ximenes  de  Cisneros,  Ab]\   349, 

371-380 

Zafra,  Francisco  de .     .     .     386 
Zanelo 344 


WELLS  GARDNER,  DARTON,  AND  CO.,  LONDON. 


Princeton 


Theological  .SemmarjUbrar^^^^ 


7i012  01223  9598 


DATE  DUE 

mt$Sm»i^ 

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GAYLORD  #3523PI       Printed  in  USA 


